An Old Hope
by Konerok Hadorak
Summary: Sequel to A Curious Thing: The Rebel Alliance, a fledgling government is still young and the Empire is too strong. They need a miracle to stand against the tyranny of the Emperor. A miracle, and a discovery. Naruto/Star Wars/EVE Online.
1. Chapter 1

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**A/N: Ok, I'm going to be doing something different now. I don't get many reviews on ACT, so I'm slightly discouraged. However, Instead of stop it, I'm just going to make a new story that I will work on at the same time as my other stories. If you don't know some of the back story, ACT will give you some of it. Other parts of it will be added in here to help you know what happens at the end of ACT, but without spoiling the story so you will still want to read both. **

**I know what you're thinking, "So he's just skipping to Episode IV?" Yeah, kind of. I'll still continue ACT when I have the motivation. Know that this story follows the same storyline as ACT, but is simply later during Episode IV. **

**Here we go!**

PS. There are links on my profile to the wikis of all three universes if you need visualization.

Also, for some reason, I can never get the "ALIGN CENTER" option to work so bear with it. :/

PSS. This is a prolgue to Episode IV in case you were wondering.

Enjoy!

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**EPISODE IV: AN OLD HOPE**

**IT IS A PERIOD OF CIVIL WAR.**  
**REBEL FORCES FIGHT VALIANTLY AGAINST THE  
OPPRESSIVE EMPIRE DAILY. BUT THEIR SMALL  
NUMBERS AND SCAVENEGED TECHNOLOGY**  
**SIMPLY CAN'T COMPARE TO THE GREAT IMPERIAL **  
**WAR MACHINE.**

**REBEL SPIES HAVE FOUND THE LOCATION OF AN OLD  
SPACE-STATION SAID TO HOLD VALUABLE TECHNOLOGY AND  
WEAPONS: WEAPONS THAT COULD POSSIBLY TURN THE  
TIDE OF THE WAR AGAINST THE EMPIRE.**

**MON MOTHMA, THE POLITICAL LEADER AND HEAD OF THE  
REBEL ALLIANCE HAS ORDERED A SEARCH OF THE STATION BEFORE  
THE IMPERIALS CAN GET THEIR HANDS ON WHATEVER IS INSIDE.**  
**WHAT THEY DON'T KNOW IS THAT THEY'RE ABOUT TO**  
**WANDER INTO A MYSTERY HELD SECRET FOR DECADES.**  
**WHAT THEY FIND, THEY MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO CONTROL…**

* * *

_**An Old Hope, Chapter 1:  
War...**_

"_Approaching target structure. Boarding teams to your stations. Boarding teams to your stations."_

The crew of the Nebulon-B frigate _Offender _scurried about the ship's narrow hallways, anxious for this mission to be completed, and hopefully in success. The captain, a middle aged Corelian by the name of Ord Karnac, sat still looking out the front viewport in the bridge. His heavy head rested on his right fist, which was propped up on the arm of the chair. He would never admit it, but he was under heavy stress at the moment. His mission was to escort a scientific team to a recently discovered facility. The complex had been hidden deep within a mass shadow where no ship would jump into without risking their lives. He'd be lucky if the ship didn't rip apart on contact with the special anomaly. Which was one reason why he was so nervous; how did they expect him to get them to this so-called find? The scientists, which also included archeologists, assured him that there would be a way in once they arrived.

The captain was skeptical about that. The only thing you could do with a mass shadow was avoid them; why would some moron put a facility in them? Rather, _how_ would someone put a facility in them? You can't jump into them, and it would take too much time to ferry supplies to it at sub-light speeds, considering the size of the mass shadow they were going to. Nonetheless, he was assured there'd be a way to access it swiftly.

He gazed out the main viewport and watched the twisting vortex of hyperspace. The shadow of another ship crossed his eyes' path. Just another of the same fleet he'd been given as protection. Of course, this did not escape his notice. Whatever was inside that mass shadow was worth enough for someone _else_ to fight for it. When he realized this, he became concerned for the safety of his crew, as any captain would be. But he had not been given the privilege of being the commanding fleet officer. That was handed out to the _Victory II_-class Star Destroyer, _Carnivore_, and its captain, Taric Alistar. Alistar was, in many aspects more advanced than Ord; age, experience, cunning, quality, and capability. But what Ord maintained that he possessed that Taric did not have was _potential;_ the potential to rise far higher in the Empire than Taric ever could have dreamed.

The third fleet member was a second Nebulon-B frigate that flew alongside his own; the _Emergent_. Both carried the necessary supplies to what Ord would call "recycle" the station; finding technology and/or data and finding out their origins before finding ways to use them to the Empire's advantage. The Victory was simply to give them a sense of protection, not actual protection. At least, that was Ord's opinion. He may have been young, but he knew enough about the Empire to understand its position on "expendability."

"Captain, we're approaching the rendezvous location and dropping out of hyperspace," a young officer off to the side announced. Ord nodded to him and turned to the section of the bridge devoted to detection.

"Anything on scan sensors?"

"Something sir. It's not a ship."

Ord scrunched his brow in seriousness. It was time to get underway.

"We're dropping out of hyperspace now sir."

"Very good." The tunnel of white fog cleared into streaks of light that shrunk until they were mere pinpricks. Then the construct accelerated into view.

It was a series of platforms interconnected by faint energy. And it was big.

"Captain. Scans indicate the object is of relatively recent creation, and there are traces of power running through it. Unknown design and origin."

Ord nodded and turned to one of his officers. "See if you can get some of those dirt-diggers to tell us what this is."

"Sir," the officer said and marched off the bridge. Ord turned back to his viewport to see if his own eyes could dissect the unknown machine's purpose. His chance was ruined by a shout from his communications.

"Captain, the _Carnivore _is requesting communication with you."

Ord nodded again. "Receive it." The blue hologram that appeared in the middle of the bridge. He stood in the usual stance anyone of seemingly higher authority stood; feet together, one slightly in front of the other, hands clasped behind his back, stock straight and with a commanding stare.

"Captain Kranac, this is a combined audience of both you myself and captain Traw. I trust both of you are consulting your assigned specialists on the purpose and origin of the object."

Jane Traw, the captain of the other Nebulon frigate nodded as her image appeared alongside Taric's, she was handed a datapad from off-screen and she opened it. "As far as we can tell," she began, "the object dates back to the Clone Wars. We believe its purpose is to launch ships into mass shadows safely, though we can't be sure."

The commander turned to Ord. "And you captain?"

Ord sniffed sharply as his officer returned just in time to offer him a datapad. He opened it and read its contents. "My group believes the same. However, from information available, the object is like a giant slingshot for ships, capable of slinging them safely into otherwise unreachable environments. With proper analysis, we could achieve the activation codes."

Taric nodded with a grin. "Very good. I expect your results within the hour." The transmission ended, but Traw's image remained. "Captain," she said with a careful tone, "I've already had my men analyze the data of the object. What I didn't mention to captain Taric," he noticed she didn't call him _commander_, "is that from the looks of things, the device is emitting energy at a degenerative rate."

Ord shrugged. "OK. Aaand…?"

She smiled at him. "Ok I'll put it in layman's terms. Say the object had one hundred percent energy when it was created and constantly emitted that energy until it had none. The rate at which it's currently losing power would indicate it was only built a few weeks ago."

Ord looked out his viewport again. "But it looks way too old for that."

"Exactly, which leads me to believe that the device doesn't passively leak energy, but rather it's just the emissions of use."

A cold shiver went down Ord's spine as the words reached him. "So… you're saying…"

"That's right," she said a frown marring her features. "Someone else has recently used it."

Ord could only shake his head and bite his lip. _'Blast it.'_ He looked at her again. "We'll have to tell him. We should do so in our next report." She nodded in agreement and her image wavered before vanishing.

He looked back to the massive metal creation in uncontained curiosity. Where could it lead, and what did it hide behind its natural shroud?

* * *

"Sir we've searched every deck on this sector of the station. Nothing here."

Group captain Terol Loren grunted, his shoulders sagging in the process. "Go and join the others in sector six; we've got to find _something._ And hurry! The Imperials could be here any time now!" The three men saluted and ran off to join their compatriots. Terol sighed heavily as he found an ancient turbolift and activated it. The Alliance command had been informed of an old factory station hidden in a mass shadow by an Imperial sympathizer. The Alliance, hoping there was something of worth there, dispatched a task force to search for it and see if they could get it operational.

When they arrived outside the mass shadow, there had been an ancient construct waiting for them. After learning how to use it, which had taken several hours of guess-work, the two Gallofree Yards medium transports that had been dispatched on this mission were slung into the depths of the shadow. They were lightly armed and armored, but they could hold their own in a fight. When they slowed to a stop, what they found surprised them. Three flat, almost hexagonal rings, each connected by a large rectangular solid section; it was a massive space station. Various debris floated around, evidently from broken parts of the stations. It emitted no energy readings and the shields were offline.

Currently they were trying to fix that. If the Imperials did come they would need the station in fighting condition, because they all knew that if the Empire couldn't have something, no one could. _'Well this is one station you're not getting,'_ he thought bitterly.

They had been able to restore some power to a majority of the systems on each station. Of course, the defenses were powered by a different source and controlled by sectors. It certainly was old; nowadays they would have had all station functions routed to the central command center. The lift stopped and opened revealing more rebel technicians working on a wall consol. He walked up behind them and peered over their shoulders. "What're you working on over here?"

"Oh boss, perfect timing. We've managed to hack into a majority of the stations security fields; we should have total control over defenses in no time."

"Excellent. Contact me when you do."

"Yessir."

Terol sighed in relief. _'As long as we have those we should be able to last for a little while in here.'_

"Oh sir, one more thing…"Terol turned back to the technician that spoke. "We found the layouts of the station and have forwarded it to all groups in this and the other two rings. But… well, there's something you should see."

Terol furrowed his brow and briskly walked back to his subordinate. The tech pressed a few buttons on the wall mounted device bringing up a specific portion of the station. The station itself was ring shaped, with a hollow center and was extremely flat. The one part of the station that wasn't so was the large box-like chamber on one side that extruded through all three hexagonal rings.

"The station gives us pretty detailed info on each of the rings' segments and sectors, according to this it's a storage bay of some kind."

"Have you had anyone check it out?"

The tech shook his head. "No and that's why you need to see this." He pressed a few more buttons while narrating. "When I pull up the storage bay's contents this list comes up."

The screen switched to a scrolling list of names. _'Wait… Names?'_

He turned to the tech curiously. "Why would they have names for storage contents?"

The tech cleared his through and looked nervous. 'Well sir, we were hoping you'd know."

Terol looked away out one of the massive windows that lined the hallways' walls. He shook his head. "I don't know. If you can spare any of your techies, I could use them. I'll form a squad and check it out."

The man nodded and directed two of his comrades to follow their superior. Both followed him to the turbolift while he pulled out a comlink, dialing in his personal squad. Right as he was about to begin the transmission, the turbolift rocked sharply and all three of them were thrown to the wall supports. "What in the blazes…?"

His comlink began chirping with incoming calls. "What the hell was that?"

"_Imperials sir! They must have followed us!"_

'_Or they're after something important here,'_ he thought grimly.

"Do we have command over the station's defenses yet?"

"_Some sir, we're powering up shields as fast as we can, the weapons on the station are archaic though; looks like projectile based, not laser. The station must be older than we thought."_

"Get the transports behind the station and have them ferry the men to it. I want them and every weapon on this station to shoot those Imperial scum 'till there's nothing left!"

He received an affirmative and he dialed again for his squad. "We're heading for deck seven, meet us there."

He ended without waiting for a reply. The station shuddered as its shields were assaulted by Imperial fire. His comlink buzzed again. _"Sir the shields are incredibly strong! Almost no damage across any of the sectors!"_

"Let's hope they stay that way." He ended the call as the doors opened with a _hiss._ In front of him was his own personal twenty man squad, each one armed for combat, ready and waiting. "Alright boys we're heading for the storage bay on this deck."

They didn't answer; they didn't need to. He simply pulled out his carbine from his side holster and jogged off, his squad following and the technicians giving him directions. It wasn't five minutes later the stations intercom began blaring. _"All crew, all crew. Imperial boarding parties away. Imperial Boarding Parties away. Impact in two minutes."_

Terol swore under his breath. "C'mon we have to get to the storage bay!" He rushed his troops as fast as he could through the endless hallways, trying to get as far as he could before the Imperial boarding parties reached the outer hull. They all moved silently, their booted feet and panting breaths the only sounds to be heard. Every so often the station would rumble as it too on enemy fire. They were halfway there when the intercom blared again.

"_Attention all troops, attention all troops, Imperials have boarded the station. Man your battle stations."_

"Blast it! Get ready boys! We may need to fight our way there!" The group nodded their heads and took the safeties off their weapons.

A few more minutes passed by before Terol's comlink beeped for perhaps the hundredth time. "Terol here."

"_Sir! We need help on deck seven!"_

"We're _on_ deck seven, what's going on?"

"_They came out of nowhere! *blaster fire* They're attacking everyone, even the Imperials! *Static break* -on't no how much longer we can hold out! We're by the power station!"_ There were several bloody screams of pain in the background that did not go unnoticed by Terol.

"Alright I'm sending men down. Just hang on!" He turned to his men and pointed at a corporal. "Take ten men and go help them out."

"Sir!" The corporal saluted and shoved ten men in the direction he needed to go, grabbing a techie as well for directions and followed after them, turning a corner they had passed behind them.

Terol now stood with ten men and a technician awaiting his order. "How much further to the storage bay?"

The specialist looked down at his data pad and his a few keys. "It should be just up ahead."

"OK, let's go!" And the whole group as one followed after him.

* * *

Private Remali Skine was not someone who believed in ghost stories. He'd grown up on Carida, and as all young men who seek glory, enlisted in the Imperial Academy there. He'd graduated with good grades and enlisted in the Stormtrooper corp. That was two months ago. He'd only been on two actual missions in that time, and in neither did he expect to see action. This was his third mission, and he'd never have expected he'd be in a live fire fight with rebels. But then, he hadn't even seen any rebels yet. As soon as his boarding pod crashed through the station's hull, he and his unit disembarked and set up a perimeter. The halls were silent accept for the com chatter that ran through every trooper's helmet and the light booming of lasers against shields. When they had secured the area, they move on, meeting with another squad and merging with them, and proceeding to scour the area for rebels.

Again, he was not a fan of ghost stories, simply because they were a waste of time. It's was only the superstitious who had reason to fear the dead, not an Imperial trooper. In his mind, the dead should fear _him_. But the halls of this station were scary; unknown words and characters were painted across them. It was all the worse when the sensor droids they'd brought with them began to detect anomalies within the walls and superstructure of the station.

Droids don't report _anomalies._ They report _findings. _

It became all the worse when one by one squad members began disappearing from around them. They had started out with thirty men. Now they were down to twenty; and they didn't even know when they had disappeared.

But he didn't believe in ghosts.

Nonetheless, he stayed in the middle of the pack. _'If we get attacked I won't be the first one shot'_ he reasoned.

His squad hadn't gone much further when a distinct grating sound could be heard, like metal on metal. They all turned toward the source of the sounds, but by the time they did, half of them were cut down, and by the time the bodies hit the floor, the assailants were gone. They were down to eight now.

But he didn't believe in ghosts.

They all fired randomly in every direction hoping to hit something. When they didn't he bent down carefully to examine a dead body. The weapons weren't energy based. The impact point seemed to be pierced by projectile weaponry. Small metal slugs probably.

There was a violent scream behind him and he turned just in time to see a fellow's head fall off his body. He stared in shock as he hadn't even seen where the attack had come from. Red splattered on his white armor.

Imperial training could not have prepared him for this. Not. One. Bit. Blaster fire and shell shock he could take. Phantom killers he could _not. _Another one down on his left. His blaster fired several rounds in the direction the attack came from and hit nothing. The squad's discipline broke and they all screamed in fear and ran back to the safety of their boarding pods.

Remali tripped over a dead body in his haste, putting him in last place. He sprinted as fast as he could to catch up. They turned a corner out of sight. He approached and rounded it only to be met by two more bodies. He leapt over them, not bothering to give them a second glance. The other three were already in the pod gesturing him to hurry up. Just as he was about to jump in, the door shut suddenly. He impacted against them with a clang.

He stumbled back a bit shaking his head, before reproaching the pod and banging on it, yelling at them to open it up. His only answer were terrified screams from within, and then silence. He slowly backed away from the pod in terror, looking this way and that, his sense suddenly on overdrive.

A metallic groan to his left; he whirled.

A clatter of clicks from behind him; he spun.

Then came the echoing sounds of slow footsteps. They reverberated against the steel walls and floor in steady repetition. Louder and louder they became until they stopped. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as he turned in fear to look behind him. He was met by a distorted view of the hallway, as if he were in a delirium. But it slowly went from delirium to color as the form of a human appeared out of thin air.

Remali's eyes nearly exploded out of his head as the gory, half naked, blaster singed body fully formed. Half of its face was missing replaced by a skull. His other side was simply bone and rotting muscle tissue. It looked at him for a long moment before it opened it mouth, releasing thousands of tiny insect-like creatures that crawled down to its arms that suddenly latched onto Remali. Even as they penetrated the nooks and crannies of his armor as he screamed, his final thoughts weren't of fear, but rather of revelation.

'_I wonder… Are all those other ghost stories real?'_

* * *

Terol screamed in surprise as the undead body swiped at him, its arms flailing about like whips. He backed up quickly even as his men fired bolt after bolt into the monstrosity. At last it fell to the ground, dead for a second time. Terol panted as his heart went into overdrive from the scare. He placed a hand over it in a calming manner. But even as the body fell to rest, like a black plague, a sea tiny insects poured out of every opening of the body crawling along the ground toward them.

"Keep going!" He yelled even as he fired pot shots at the encroaching swarm. All ten of them, minus one who'd been unfortunate enough to get caught by another of the undead monsters, ran for all it was worth.

"Up ahead is the door!" the specialist shouted as they approached a sealed door. They all hit the wall back first, aiming their weapons behind them, fingers on the trigger. They heard muffled sounds as the technician worked on unlocking the door.

"Come on man, open that door already!"

"I know I know! It's not as easy as it looks!"

The footsteps grew louder. "Almost got it…"

Blaster bolts flew from the hall towards them. "I got it!"

And a squad of Stormtroopers appeared. _"There they are! Blast 'em!"_

Both sides opened fire on each other, two troopers fell instantly and three of Terol's own. The doors hissed open behind them. "Go! Go! Go!"

The seven of them rushed through and took cover behind the door's frames until it shut, the tech locking it from the inside. They breathed deeply even as the Stormtroopers banged against the door trying to get it open. When they felt they could breathe easily enough again, Terol turned to the mechanic. "Ok, where are we right now."

The room they were in was pretty much pitch black, so they turned on their gun-lights, shining them this way and that. They were in a long hallway with dozens of doors on both sides. "We should be right about…" he pointed to his screen. "…here." He pointed to the outermost part of the storage facility.

"These don't look like storage facilities…" Terol said as he opened one door to find a living area. The others opened doors as well to see lavish rooms, still fully furnished. "These look like living quarters."

They all looked puzzled.

"We should move on." And they did so, passing by room after room, checking them every so often. Rooms, rooms and more rooms. At length they came to the end of the hall. It was one massive door.

"Any idea how to open it?" Terol asked, not seeing a consol. The technician looked around and saw nothing as well.

"Not a clue sir."

With no inclination on how to get past it, they took to searching for an opening mechanism, or something. Terol continued to examine the hulking door; it was thick plated armor decorated with intricate symbols, probably a language of some kind. A line of it came diagonally from each corner before merging into a circle in the middle of the door, at which point the lines twisted into a corkscrew in the center.

He couldn't make heads or tails of it, and he racked his brain trying to figure it out. But he was drawn out of his thoughts at the sound of new footsteps. He silently looked at each of his men, who had immediately looked at him. Using a series of hand signs, he directed his squad to hide in the nearby rooms.

It was a few seconds after they hid that five Stormtroopers ran past, slowing to a stop in front of the door.

He signaled to remain quiet until he said so.

They all listened fervently as the troopers mutter amongst themselves. _"Where are they? They said there was group of rebels in here."_

"_Dunno. They should be here though. Sergeant?"_

"_Hang on a sec. I'm gonna try something…"_ The synthetic voice of the sergeant came through his vocalizer. _"What's the best kind of birthday you could have?"_

Terol sighed in relief at the code words. "A surprise party," he answered back.

With a signal he ordered his friends out, weapons down. He stepped out of his hiding room and approached the quintet of "Stormies" with an exasperated smile on his face. "Had us scared there for a second. I'm guessing you took care of those other guys outside?"

The sergeant trooper nodded and extended a hand. _"Sergeant Pierce."_

Terol accepted it and smiled. "Captain Loren." The others all noticeably relaxed as the turncoats lowered their weapons.

"_Any chance of getting that door open?"_ Pierce asked pointing a thumb at the massive metal slab.

Terol shook his head in frustration. "Not a chance. It's got a lock on it but it's not technological." He pointed to the weird symbols on the obstacle. "I'm beginning to think it's one of those things you can't use without the Force."

The sergeant scoffed as he ran his hand over the metal. _"Yeah, well, unless one of you's a Jedi then it isn't budging."_ He stood silent for a moment before he reached into his pocket and retrieved a comlink. _"Captain, we need those experts to be sent to storage bay, deck seven. Lock onto our position for exact location."_ He received a confirmation as a response and they all waited for that familiar _bang_ of a boarding pod breaking through metal. A few minutes later another squad of Stormtroopers accompanied a trio of others.

They wore black leather and wore officer helmets, but the lack of rank patches indicated they were simply for protection. Each one had a duo of floating analysis droids following them. The leader trooper saluted to the sergeant and one of the men in black spoke.

"_Sergeant Pierce, Special Archeological Squad reporting as requested."_

"_Good, see what you can figure out about that door."_ The three nodded and pressed a series of keys on their infopads that sent the droids roving off to the slab. As they approached, various scanning equipment whirred to life, analyzing the door and its internal structure. The six drones searched every nook and cranny with search beams and in every spectrum of light. Ultrasound pulses pierced the heavy platting, allowing them to see the internal structure.

Little by little, the specs came streaming into their displays. As it completed, one of the technicians looked at the group. "I hope you guys haven't tried shooting at it."

"Why's that?"

"It's magnetically sealed. You'd be shot by your own bolt. Not only that but any excessive force would trigger an electrical surge, but not just on the door; the whole hallway is lined with dischargers."

Several of the men exchanged nervous glances as they turned their gazes to the walls around them. Terol backed over to one of the analyzers and looked over his shoulder at the screen. "So how do we open it?"

"Well sir, it looks like the door is locked by a type of energy reading device. The lock inside would detect the energy and unlatch accordingly."

Terol looked at the door and then back at the hand-held screen. "Whatever's in there must be pretty important. Anyway we can replicate that energy?"

"It would take a very specific pulse on a specific frequency to open it. A little more scanning and we could probably get it down," another technician spoke up.

The room shuddered as a loud booming sound rattled down the hall. "We don't have a few minutes. Hurry up and find a way to open it," the Imperial sergeant ordered.

There was a chorus of confirmations. While the mechanics worked on rigging up a pulse emitter, the troopers for both the Rebels and the turncoat Imperials loitered around, opening up miscellaneous room and looking in them and examining their contents. _"Check this out,"_ one stormie said, holding up a picture. On it, a blond haired man and raven haired girl stood smiling at the camera with goofy faces. Of to the side of the camera, a red haired man stood in the background.

"_I don't think this was a military base either,"_ said another as he opened a door and saw what he supposed was a room fit for a newborn youngling, cradle and all.

"What the hell were civilians doing in a place like this?" Asked a rebel trooper, sitting on the bed, shining a handheld light on the surrounding room.

"_That's a good question…"_ answered another stormie.

They all stood upright, weapons at the ready as a feral scream ricocheted down the hall. They all peaked outside the room's doorways, only to see nothing. "It's those monsters again sir!" A rebel shouted worriedly.

"Take up defensive positions," Terol responded as he back up toward the immovable door. Nudging one of the workers he asked, "How's it going?"

"Almost got it sir." He said it as he looked over his shoulder at the heightening yelling and sudden blaster sounds. Terol nodded and moved back to help his men. A dozen of those…_ things_ were rushing down the corridor some in shredded aged clothing, others with broken Imperial armor, and even others with brand new Rebel uniforms. "Don't let them get past!"

Burning red lights flew down the hallways and impacted the assaulting juggernauts as they stumbled forward to attack. Even as their flesh was scorched off and their bodies fell to the ground, some took to leaping to the walls and running as if they were expert acrobats, using their insane dexterity to swing at the staunch defenders.

Terol's ears screamed in pain as the staccato bursts of an Imperial repeater fired from beside him, mowing down the approaching creatures, whatever they were. One managed to tackle one of the defenders, and was promptly shot off, its flesh turning into a massive mass of carbon scoring.

The event lasted only thirty seconds. They managed to keep everyone alive, but they were visibly shaken. They slowly rose from their positions only to drop back into them as the sounds of more footsteps reached them. "How's that door coming?"

"Almost…!"

A few more taps on his control device and the pulse emitter that had been placed on the center of the door hummed to life and a distinct buzzing sound, along with a dim blue light illuminated the dark hall only for a moment. Then the light died down and vanished. Everyone had turned to watch. But when nothing happened they quickly rotated back to the long stretch of hallway as the footsteps grew louder.

"Come on!"

The technicians looked at loss for what to do, and one, in his frustration, kicked the door. There was a booming grating of metal on metal as gears rattled into motion. The door slowly rose up, inch by inch until it was a foot open.

But they hadn't time to watch as the clacking footsteps soon turned into ominous silhouettes. Every single person there, shrugged their shoulders in a groan as the outlines of Super battledroids leveled their wrist blasters at them and began firing. Crimson light reflected off of their navy armor, and their single photoreceptors glowed an eerie green.

Two men fell from the initial onslaught. Terol ducked as a bolt singed past and sent sparks skittering over his head. Taking cover inside the room he'd accommodated, he leaned over to see how high the door way. Two and a half feet at least. But it was enough.

"Go for the door now!"

One by one the soldiers began covering for each other as they ran and dove under the door, avoiding the hail of lasers flying at them.

Unfortunately for them, the Super battledroids armor was highly polished and reflected a majority of the offending lasers off in random directions. The only thing that threw them off was the power behind the repeater's fire. But when he got up to leave, the droid designated him primary target and swiftly eliminated him.

Terol made sure the other had gotten under before he reached into a pocket and pulled out a flash-bang grenade. He pressed a button and primed it, chucking it out the door and waited for the distinct explosion before getting up and sprinting for the door. He dared to look back and saw the droids getting over their brief disorientation and leveling their wrist blasters at him. With a cry he dove under the door as it suddenly groaned and slammed shut. The laser fire from the other side stopped instantly as he was surrounded in darkness. A hand reached down and pulled him to his feet. As his eyes adjusted again, he saw it was the Stormtrooper sergeant. He nodded a thanks and looked around him.

There was apparently a door switch on this side, as one of the men stood by it, dropping his hands from the panel. "Well that was my exercise for the week," he muttered as he checked himself for missing limbs or burnt skin.

Finding none, he continued. "So… where are we?"

They all activated their blaster lights and shone them around looking at the surroundings. Needless to say they were intrigued.

They were in a large room. Well, perhaps it would be better described as a massive chamber several hundred feet high, where their lights couldn't even penetrate the blackness of its depths, nor traverse its length in any direction. The only thing they _could_ see was a series of black, semi-tubular machines, about the size of a coffin. Each one hissed continuously, and was sealed with a pair of metal lids. Terol looked at the one next to him. His stare turned serious as he looked at it. He noticed a small console at its base. It held readings of pressure and temperature, which was currently at below zero. "What the…?" He whispered as he studied the machine. Unlike the foreign language that decorated the station's walls, this device read in plain basic. When he found an "unseal" button he hesitantly pressed it.

There was an even louder hissing and a groan of metal. He stood from his crouched position as the two lids unlatched with a clank and slid down. Hidden beneath them was a cool blue glow, obviously light from within the device. Dust flew into the air when he blew on the outside of it, which he waved away like a bad smell. He pressed his fingertips to the light and found it to be transparesteel. Cool to the touch, it was fogged from the warmer outside temperature. He breathed deeply over it and wiped his sleeve over it.

He could see a vague form from within and he leaned forward for a better look. A few other's had joined him and wiped their hands over the cover. It was difficult to make out, but when he did, so did everyone else, and they jumped back in shock.

It was a human. Frozen solid in a peaceful sleep, if the calm expression on the girls face was anything to go by. Terol breathed deeply from the shock, and with a start looked around him at all the other canisters.

"This _is_ a storage facility. It stores people," he said in awe.

The others went to several other of the coffin like structures and unsealed them to find similar results. All humans.

"_Sir, look here!"_

Terol turned to the Stormtrooper who spoke and jogged over to see. It was a human girl, young by his sight. But that wasn't what the soldier was staring at. It was her bulging belly; one not of fat, but of ungiven life.

"…She was pregnant," he said incredulously.

"_Is_ sir," said one of the specialists. "These readings monitor life stasis. They're all in… like a hibernation."

"Can we wake them up?" A boom echoed around them, but there wasn't a shudder.

"It's not advisable, given the situation, but yes its possible."

Terol shone his light down the walkway they stood on to see the coffins took on a different appearance. He strode over and looked at them. These sat diagonally raised, each one decorated with a series of figured similar to the writing on the station's walls. The walkway ended at a vertically raised coffin, much bigger than the others. He stood before it and clenched a fist. This one held a waist high panel that lit up at his touch, flickering a few times as it awoke.

"We don't need to wake up all of them. Just one." He unsealed the cover and gasped as he saw seven silhouettes incased within. Without another thought, he activated the thaw option, which was easy enough considering the controls were in Basic. The hissing stopped and the cool glowing blue lights pulsed as they took on an orange-ish color. They all waited with baited breath as the light grew and dimmed. Seconds ticked by, but they felt like hours. At long last the transparent barrier between them and the figure trapped within slid down.

The steam from the dying cold crept across the floor. When nothing immediately jumped out at them, Terol looked at the body more thoroughly. It was very thin, with little muscle to be seen, but he nevertheless looked healthy. He didn't move. Terol reached his hand out to touch him when his eyes opened in a start. Terol reflexively withdrew his hand and used it to support his carbine. The man's eyes were strange.

The man's gaze sharpened after a moment and he looked down on the group of intruders. "Who are you?"

The it was a command, not a question. "I am captain Terol Loren of the Rebel Alliance. This station is currently under attack from the Empire. Can you help us?"

The man's eyes narrowed. "…What has become of the Republic?" He asked after a short pause.

Terol blinked in surprise; didn't this man know? But he corrected himself, realizing this man must have been asleep for a long time.

"The Republic is no more. The Empire has taken its place. It's now a rule commanded through tyranny and corruption. The Rebel Alliance is formed of the discontent peoples of this galaxy who directly oppose the Empire."

The man gazed at the hard for several moments. "I know nothing of these factions. Allow me to educate myself."

For some reason, Terol felt a sense of uneasiness fall over him. He blinked when he saw one of the six figures behind the first, which he'd thoughtlessly forgotten about, twitch and look at him, its eyes opening ominously.

He didn't have time to think before the orange haired male dashed past him. There was a grunt and a thud, and when Terol turned around, one of his men was lying on the ground, a distant, empty gaze in his eyes. The second man flexed his fingers and leapt back, _over_ their heads and landed beside the first.

There was a tense silence as the Rebels processed what had just happened. One of the stormies bent down to examine the man lying on the ground by pressing his fingers to his neck. "He's… dead, sir…."

Terol looked from the body to the trooper, then back to the now seven awakening men. Each one was shirtless, with only a pair of simple long black pants covering them. Each one, except for the middle one with red hair looked physically fit and strong. Obviously their sleep had not hindered their physiology. But the most notable feature was that each one held a large assortment of body piercings, not just on their faces, but also on their chests and arms.

He blinked as he noticed not all of them were men. One was a female with her hair tied up in a knot on her head. She wore a plain black top that clearly exposed her midriff along with the black pants the others wore.

As each of them opened their eyes, Terol shivered as each of them held the same hypnotizing design. None of them spoke.

The middle one's eyes blinked before focusing on Terol himself.

"It seems this galaxy has only fallen further. A pity. It seems we have no choice now."

One of the strangers stepped down and turned aside to a small panel next to the capsule that they hadn't seen due to the darkness. The older looking man waved his hand over the console and it lit up. He pressed several keys with no hesitance or pause. Throughout the chamber, hissing sounds grew and ceased as the covers to several more cryo-chambers opened up, casting their blue light into the darkness before changing to orange.

But more and more kept opening more than Terol could have imagined there was. Then distant twinkles of lights lit up in the distance, spreading like a plague until the pitch darkness around them slowly lifted to reveal hulking monstrosities floating above them. Terol stepped back in awe as the realization of what this place was hit him like a ton of bricks. _'We've either made the best of friends or the worst of enemies in the universe…'_

The shadows of kilometer long ships loomed into view, flanked by smaller cousins of radically different design. They sat their silently, like stone golems guarding an invaluable treasure, coming to life only to expel intruders that would dare take that item away. But as looked on, there were even more ships above those hundreds of smaller ships were locked into place by harnesses. Moans like of the dying resounded around them as hundreds of men and women awoke and stepped out of their frozen beds. Each one rubbed their temples and shook their heads before, as if as one, realizing where they were and looked to the middle of the seven.

The man in question simply smiled and turned away from them, looking up at the closest ship. The entre thing looked to be made of gold as it sat their patiently. It had a large beak-like front and on its sides were nasty looking weapons of unknown design.

The man stared at it for several seconds before he turned back to the hundreds gathering before him. Screens appeared on the walls of the massive hanger bay that easily dwarfed that of the ships inside.

Terol looked around him. No one appeared to be panicking or worried, but instead looked at the red haired man with expectance. His own men on the other hand had their blasters ready, their uneasiness clearly visible at this strange spectacle.

Finally the man spoke. "Brothers, sisters!" His voice echoes like it would in the hall of a king, his strong, commanding voice contrasting with his frail form. "It is time once again to rejoin the world of the living. Pray that you haven't grown rusty in the years we've slept. We will cleanse this galaxy of evil…" His eyes widened with emotion as he raised a hand and turned around, his hand out to the golden ship, as if offering an invisible token. "…By way of pain."

A shiver shot through Terol's spine.

The man turned back to the masses. "Red Sun Rising, board your ships!"

Without another word, the hundreds of men and women, all humans Terol noted, walked off briskly into the distance where he could vaguely make out transports waiting for them. Massive spot lights from the floor and distant ceiling came to life and ancient gears grinded into movement. Already ships began to move, their docking anchors released and retracting.

The hum of ship engines soon turned into a thundering roar as they maneuvered around each other expertly.

Terol's comlink beeped and he answered it trying to hear above the cacophony of noise. _"We've lost control over the station's systems sir! It's like they have a mind of their own!"_ He numbly told them not to worry about it, to which he received surprised exclamations, but he had already shut the device off.

His eyes turned skyward in awe as the armada of archaic ships screamed to life. It wouldn't be until later that the thought came to him, but the hanger's dimensions were actually bigger than the station itself.

* * *

All over the station, Rebel forces watched in mounting confusion as the zombie like monsters turned away from them and automated defenses ignored them; turrets appeared out of walls and ceilings but did not shoot them, and droid enforcers simply marched past them. Each on had the same thing on their minds.

"What the hell's going on?"

* * *

"Enemy shields at seventy five percent captain. We should be through them in another fifteen minutes."

Taric Alistar nodded approvingly. The amount of shields the station had was _ungodly_, but he took solace in the amount of power the station was producing to keep them up would be a powerful device when captured and installed on Imperial ships. He nearly drooled at the promotion he was sure to get.

He was kept from doing so by a rumble that rolled through the ship. "Damage report."

"Our shields are at fifty percent, but the enemy weapons are cycling between us, the _Emergent_, and the _Offender_. Overall we lose ten percent each round they make. It'll be another hour at least before our shields fail."

The Imperial captain nodded again. The two rebel transports were hiding beneath the station's shields which meant they had to wait until the station's shields were down before they could engage. Not that tay would need the _Carnivore_; A single Nebulon-B frigate could take out the ninety meter long transports easily, let alone two Nebulon-B's _and_ a Victory-class II Star Destroyer. Of course, the rebels were far too attached to their soldiers to leave them in the station, which meant they wouldn't run once the shields were down. They weren't going anywhere.

Some muddled murmuring from the sensors' station drew his attention. "What's going on over there?" he ordered. The three officers, one sitting, the other two leaning over his shoulder, looked back at their captain.

"We have unknown contacts on radar captain."

"Contacts? What kind of contacts?" He asked only a moment before the bridge window flashed in brilliant colors. Taric fell to the ground with a thud. AN aide quickly picked him up as he shouted angrily. "What the hell was that?"

Faint shouting ordered the optical lenses in the windows to focus in on the tiny craft that had suddenly swarmed out of the station. They were only maybe fifty meters long, but they flew with the speed of fighters, an assortment of weapons impacting against their hulls.

"Captain, hostile ships exiting the station!"

Taric grumbled as he steadied himself on his feet. "Launch all fighters and activate the emergency inertial compensators!"

There was no audible response but he knew it was done. He watched with growing calm as the H-shaped TIE fighters soared from the ventral docking bay. Two squadrons comprising of twelve fighters each immediately engaged the bigger hostile ships. He watched as a tactical overlay of the battle came to life in front of him in the form of a 3D hologram, and included the three Imperial, rebel and Unknown ships, and their position relative to the station.

The Nebulon-B's were already using their combined twenty four anti-fighter laser cannons to target the hostiles, which, being nearly ten times larger than a starfighter, were considerably easy to hit.

"Captain, Hostile ships are launching fighters." Several of the hostiles did indeed launch smaller fighters which engaged the TIEs with incredible efficiency. As their fighters danced around each other in a maddening ballet, the bigger ships began to harass all three Imperial warships.

It was several minutes of tense fighting before one of the sensors stations turned from his station, hesitantly taking his gaze away from it. "Captain, we've identified the hostile ships but…"

"Well? Out with it!" Taric growled.

"Sir, these ships date back to the Clone Wars; they belong to the mercenary nation Akatsuki."

Taric suddenly felt a chill grow up his spine. _'__**The**__ Akatsuki? The third party faction-for-hire that was considered so dangerous that the Emperor himself led the attack on their main base of operations?'_

He was very young when the Clone Wars broke out, but he remembered when the Holonet would flash highlight reels regarding the war all across the galaxy. The Akatsuki were a destabilizing factor in the war against the Separatists_ and_ against the Republic, depending on who paid them more money. The power of the small, but incredibly powerful Akatsuki, in both land and space campaigns rivaled that of the infamous Mandolorians. Indeed, their combat quality acutely resembled that of the distinct warrior people.

But that didn't make sense. "Nonsense! They're likely just rebel piloted; it makes no difference, just shoot them down."

Indeed space was filled with explosions. A blue flash symbolized the destruction of one of the phantom ships. He smiled. _'If it's just the rebels, this will be a pointless battle and an easy victory!'_

"Captain look!" He watched as the window lenses zoomed in on a small circular object that shot from the azure explosion like a bullet. It was a reflective dark green, with verdant green exhaust spewing from its thrusters. Schematics immediately arose from the bowls of the Star Destroyer's computers, pointing out key systems and parts. But what froze the crew in their tracks was the name of the miniscule ship:

CAPSULE-CLASS "POD" ESCAPE VESSEL.

No one had seen one except for the single one that sat in the Coruscant Museum. But everyone knew the stories; men and women would have special surgery that allowed them to connect with a ship like it was their own body. Those who had the surgery lived almost exclusively in small craft called "capsules"

They were the only ones who could; no one else could pilot them. So when that capsule came screaming out of the fiery explosion, everyone was thinking the same thing. _'Those are _real_ capsuleers…'_

All of a sudden, he felt very crewmember's eyes fall on him. He looked at them; they were uncertain, wary, and fearful. He pulled himself together and looked at them defiantly. "They are an age old menace to this Empire. We will eliminate them with the same ease as any other rebel force!"

The crew, slightly emboldened, went back to their work as Taric went over to the sensors station. "Bring up data on all hostile ships in combat." The young officer nodded and did so, bringing up information on the main holographic display; little text boxes appeared on the tactical overlay with little lines pointing to the different ships.

According to the information stored in the Imperial vessel, the enemy fleet consisted of several dozen "frigate-class" ships. Apparently the capsuleers used a different ship size system.

Names began appearing left and right: _Atron_, _Condor_, _Incursus_, _Rifter_, _Tristan_, _Slasher_, _Heron_, _Punisher_, and _Executioner_.

Each one showed to specialize in various, unique weaponry ranging from missiles to projectile weapons; from exotic lasers to powerful hybrid railguns. The turrets on said ships were fast tracking easily capable of pin point firing at key systems. More information came up regarding their fighters. Apparently, they used miniscule droid fighters that we capable of dogfighting with great skill. Indeed, his TIEs were trading blows with them, though their droid vessels were obviously superior, considering they also had shields.

Two more of the enemy frigates exploded in bright blue flames. Their capsules shooting off back toward the primeval station. But the tactical display soon began beeping in earnest with the appearance of more ships. Taric watched with an estranged expression that soon turned to horror as massive ships that could have matched a Star Destroyer's size began emerging from the massive docking bay. Some of them measured in the hundreds of meters easily the size of his own ship, others the size of the big _Imperial_-class Star Destroyers.

Five ships only a third of the _Carnivore_ quickly made their way across the field of battle, refusing to fire and shrugging off the scattered pot shots taken at them. The computer showed two _Omen_-class cruisers, one _Blackbird_-class cruiser, a _Thorax_ of the same class, and finally a tad larger and far more bulky _Brutix_-class battlecruiser.

The two Omen's stood off from the fight and fired brilliant red beams of energy at the two Nebulon–B's while the Blackbird circled around all three Imperial warships. The Brutix continued to approach until it slid alongside the _Carnivore. _Taric knew what was going to happen as soon as he saw the thick guns on the side of the ship rotate toward them.

"Prepare to broadside!"

The numerous weapons of the Victory- II class Star Destroyer clashed with the humongous Neutron Blasters. Both ships rocked from the force throwing crew members to the floor despite the emergency inertial compensators running at full steam.

The barrage stopped when the Brutix passed them completely, rounding about for another pass.

"Damage report!"

"Shields at six percent! Armor taking slight damage!"

Taric looked at the opposing ship incredulously. "How much damage did we do?"

"Enemy shields at forty percent."

Taric some solace in that his shields had already been weakened before the other ship engaged. Had they both been on even ground, he would have won. All of a sudden sensors began fluctuating all around the bridge, officers calling out situational reports. Even as he watched the hologram of the battle began to flicker, images and words scattering randomly around it in static.

"What's going on?" He called out to no one in particular.

"We're being sensor jammed sir! We can't track the enemy ships." He was answered from no one in particular.

Taric let his gaze fall on the idle Blackbird orbiting them. _'There's no way to win this fight,'_ he finally admitted to himself, noting that the biggest ships hadn't even started firing yet. "Order the _Emergent_ and _Offender_ to cover our escape and jump into hyperspace as soon as possible!"

There was only one way out of this alive; run.

* * *

Ord swore as he received Taric's orders. _'What does that blasted fool think he's doing? He's sacrificing us to save his own skin!'_ Unlike the Carnivore, the Offender did not have data on the enemy ships, nor did Taric see fit to share the information with either him or captain Traw. Having no knowledge of the enemy ships had put him at a severe disadvantage initially and even now he tried coordinating attacks despite the jamming they were receiving.

He watched with growing anger as the _Carnivore _accelerated into hyperspace, but not before receiving a withering, probably crippling blast from one of the bigger ships. He took joy in that fact; Taric would look pathetic when he arrived at _any_ Imperialoutpost.

But as for the here and now, he knew the battle was lost. The only thing he could do was try and find and honorable end and die fighting; like and Imperial captain should. At least, that was his line of thoughts until his communication's officer reported, "Captain, the _Emergent_ is broadcasting a system-wide surrender message. She's giving up sir."

Ord sighed heavily and rubbed his face with a sweaty palm. There was a heavy silence that followed. No one in the bridge moved. After several seconds, Ord shook his head and looked to the same young man. "Broadcast the same message; cease combat and withdraw TIEs. …We lost this one." He said as he sat down in his chair. It felt all too relaxing now, compelling him with a notion of sleep. He was tired for sure. He hadn't been in many fights, mostly being cleanup missions involving pirates. He'd never fought such a… a _draining_ battle. Maybe this was why older captains' hair grayed quickly.

Presently the jamming ceased and a transmission from the _Emergent _brought him out of his rest. When captain Traw's image appeared in front of him her smile was gentle. "I'm glad you took my cue and surrendered."

Ord sighed deeply. "I suppose it _was_ a losing battle… I can't help but wonder why you did it."

She blushed slightly and brushed a lock of her red hair behind her ear. "Well… there _was_ another reason…"

Ord looked at her curiously. "I'm actually an undercover Rebel Alliance informant," she said with a slight grin and a bashful expression.

Ord sat in silence after hearing that, but it wasn't long before he shook his head and chuckled. The chuckle turned into a full laugh as he held his head up on one of the chair's arms. "I guess we never would have really won anyway then."

"You're not angry at me?" She asked with surprise.

He shook his head. "Maybe a little, but to be honest I kind of envied the Rebels for their persistence and camaraderie. I don't suppose they'll take Imperial captains prisoner."

"Oh they will, gladly," she said with a tinge of relief in her voice. "If a captain surrenders, then that means the ship belongs to the Alliance, and trust me when I say we need the ships."

He looked at her oddly. "The Alliance is _that_ pressed for ships? This is only a Nebulon-B y'know. It's not that valuable."

She shook her head. "It's more than valuable; its _in_valuable. The Alliance will take what it can get."

He sighed again. "So what now? You board my ship, take my men prisoner?"

Her face suddenly changed but not in a negative way. Her expression seemed to hold knowledge… a secret she wasn't telling him; like a child who knew something someone else didn't.

"Well, we will yes. But I can't speak for the others."

"Others?" Ord asked, not understanding.

"Yes, aside from the two transports, none of those ships are ours."

Ord was confused now. "But aren't they your crews?"

She laughed heartily, but not with mirth. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

He formed a mischievous smile and looked askance at her. "Try me."

She smiled as well and looked him dead in the eyes. "Captain, what do you know of Capsuleers?"

* * *

**A/N: So you see what I mean now? It's a bit different, but I feel it will work **

**You all know how I work; if there's something you don't understand, it will be explained later on. No need to worry. So tell me what you think! **

**Seriously, just hit the review button and tell me what you think. Love ya guys!**


	2. Chapter 2: Clearing the Haze

**A/N: AND I RETURN WITH CHARIOTS OF GOLD AND SILVER AND BLACK PIXALS FORMED INTO WORDS OF GREATNESS! Well, maybe just the last one. My muse has been on overdrive the past few weeks and it's taken me that long to finish this chapter between my classes. This may not be the longest chapter i've made, it was either this or nothing, and I was eager to update this story :) **

**I'm also really excited! The 20****th**** was the four month anniversary of me and my girlfriend! My last girlfriend had already dumped me and then gotten back together with me by our third month so this is a definite improvement! :D Plus my last girlfriend really just turned into a jerk over the last year . Glad God got me outta that one!**

**Also had a massive Airsoft fight in January at my friend's house with over thirty people coming to fight (which for us is big). Full on camouflage and painted guns, tactical equipment and blazing white BBs! ZE EPICNEZZ RULED! If you live in the Miami county area of Ohio and are interested, message me and I'll give ya our Facebook link! **

**But enough about me! Back on track! I don't have a whole lot of questioning reviews last chapter so not much to say there, but I do have to ask a question. **Marc, ficgenie, DBZLOVER, storyreaderlovespie… **Are you guys like friends in real life and you all read my stories? Every time you review you do it together and one after the other. I'm tempted to disable anon reviews just to make you lazy bums to get an account MUHUHAHAHAHAA! **

**That said, onto the chapter!**

* * *

_**An Old Hope, Chapter 2:  
Clearing the Haze  
**_

"Capusleers? You're kidding me right? The Empire broadcasted their extinction galaxy wide. And I can't imagine the Emperor would slack off in destroying them." Ord commented as he watched the small foreign ships float around the station their guns still trained on his Nebulon-B frigate. Bigger ships continued to pour out of them massive hanger, ranging from small twenty to fifty meter sized patrol ships to humongous capital ships the size of Star Destroyers. His sensors, as they were no longer jammed, now showed them to have over sixty of the smaller ships maybe fifteen or so medium sized ships and five of the biggest type. How they all fit in that hanger he had no idea, as the specs of the ships showed that so many simply wouldn't fit in the station.

"I'm afraid not," Jane Traw answered matter-of-factly. "Apparently there was an army of them inside the station in cryo-sleep. That's what the Empire was after apparently; they wanted to destroy the capsuleers hibernating."

Ord thought about it for a moment before he shook his head. "I can't imagine the Emperor would send such a small force to kill them, knowing they were here."

Jane responded with slight pride, "I don't think he expected rebels to wake them up first."

Ord shrugged his eyebrows in a "that's true" fashion.

"But moving on, I think they're letting us live because we woke them up, so let's not do anything to make them angry, shall we?"

Ord nodded simply. In the Clone Wars, when the Republic unveiled its secret clone army and sent it against the Confederacy hordes, the Akatsuki appeared as a mercenary faction; an army for hired to the highest bidder. Their allegiances switched hands several times in the course of the war. But they weren't without rules: The biggest one was that if they were bought out, they would tell their former employers such, and if they were stationed among either the Republic or Separatist forces, would pack up and leave afterword. Otherwise it would have been too easy to wait for them to bunker down with the enemy and _then_ buy them out.

When the Confederacy surrendered, their armies deactivated and their leadership dead, the celebration of the Republic victory was sullied by the betrayal of the Jedi against then Chancellor Palpatine. As it turned out, during Lord Vader's assault of the Jedi Temple, he discovered that the Jedi Council had secretly hired the Akatsuki to aide them in their eventual rebellion. In response to this, the Emperor himself led the attack against the Akatsuki's only stronghold, defeating them in a horrific eight day battle. The surprise assault caught the Akatsuki completely by surprise.

The small war saw the end of every capsuleer and the destruction of Akatsuki.

To think there were more hiding away intrigued him greatly.

"Captain, we're receiving a message from the station. They're requesting your presence immediately."

He nodded shortly and rose from his chair. "Very well. Acknowledge the request and prep a shuttle for transport."

"Yessir."

Ord leaned back and felt a few vertebrae crack in refusal. He groaned and stretched, sighing in relief as his muscles retracted back to normal form. He shook his head tiredly. This day had become so much more than he could have ever imagined.

The trip down to the shuttle, and its small flight to the station lasted a tad longer than he'd expected, and he insisted on riding in the co-pilot's seat. From there, he watched as two of the smaller vessels (painted a forest green with a long pointed needle-like spike jutting forward) that later would be known as _Ishkurs_ pulled up alongside his miniscule-in-comparison shuttle and a duo of fighter squadrons escorted them to the massive hanger bay from which poured the near hundred capsuleer ships. The Rebel transports were also being escorted inside its great maw, though as he watched, he could see the giant turrets on the hundred meter long ships swivel to keep on them. He looked to the two _Ishkurs_ and noticed they too had their turrets trained on his shuttle.

"They aren't taking any chances…" When they came into range of the hanger's tractor beams, the _Ishkurs_ broke off along with their fighters and flew out of sight. The small _Lambda _shuttle was carefully navigated through the impossibly tangled mess of ships that seemed to be just as carefully moved out. Whatever was controlling the tractor beams must have had very steady hands, or very grey hair.

As they were pulled along, they looked at the massive structure around them. It was square, with rusted orange walls that were thousands of meters high and equally as wide. Other shuttles picked their way among the other ships before offloading passengers on nearby catwalks and landings. As he looked down, he could see a multitude of black dots in the distance below. He realized they were people.

They all moved as one to more shuttles on the ground floor, waiting to take them higher up; to their ships most likely. As he turned his to the ships themselves, he found the names of them starting to trickle into his mind; a long forgotten steam of memories from half a lifetime ago. All of a sudden, he felt a boyish sense of excitement flow through him. He pointed to one vertically shaped ship with a dull, but iridescent green armor plating.

"That's a _Myrmidon _battle cruiser," He said as he remembered their names from special news reports.

The crew in the cockpit all turned to look at the ship he pointed out. He pointed to another flat golden-white ship with two engine hubs extending behind it. "And that's an _Arbitrator_-class cruiser."

A shadow passed over the viewport and they all looked up to see the eclipsing ship. Ord's mouth nearly went dry with awe. It was golden. Not like the other gold ships, but actually _golden_. It was nearly a thousand meters long with a beak-like front and three prong-like extensions jutting out from the bottom, each one housing a quartet of massive guns. From his memories, the name "Apocalypse" jumped into his mind. But this one seemed a bit different from the one's commonly shown on the holonet. It might have been a newer version. Regardless, he pointed it out too.

Hordes of memories from his life as a youth in during the Clone Wars returned in response to the sight of those space behemoths. There were several different levels of lights along the station walls, and each individual viewport winked in and out from the crewmembers now walking through them. There must have been thousands of people in hibernation in this station.

He looked forward and saw a large landing pad, already holding two rebel shuttles and another _Lambda_. His pilot activated the landing gear as soon as the weight of descent fell on them. The ship hit the deck with a clang and Ord stood to leave. He was stopped by a young officer. The man was probably around twenty standard years old, and his eyes shown with youth and the emotions that accompanied it.

"Be careful sir."

Ord smiled and nodded, stepping down to the landing ramp.

Four storm troopers accompanied him out, flanking him on both sides. Outside he watched as Captain Traw exited her shuttle with only two guards. The Rebels were offloading more than just officers it seemed; they were also bringing out supplies and personnel from their cargo ships, though there were some officials standing together off in a corner of the landing pad. He motioned for his guards to stay at the ramp and strode off to Traw.

She saw him approach and held out her hand to him with a beaming smile. "Good to finally meet you in person Captain."

Ord gave her an ironic smiled and accepted her hand. "Likewise Captain." He looked around with wide excited, but wary eyes. There was no one else on the platform but them and the Rebels. Though the reason why was probably because of the hanger guns that were currently trained directly on them from the ceiling.

"I wonder when they'll come get us," he wondered aloud.

Even as the last syllables left his mouth the large doors on the other end of the platform opened, bright radiant light spilling forth. From within, black silhouettes ambled towards them, the whiteness around their dark forms creating an aura of mystery and suspense. As the figures walked forward, the light behind them became less intense and he could make out details. They were soldiers obviously, with dark tan (but not brown) armor that concealed all of their skin. Their helmets were of the same color but had wide visors with a jet black tint. Unlike the visor designs of the clone trooper or the storm trooper, which were intended to inspire a type of recognition when seen, these helmets, while plain only made them seem like faceless killers, cold and obedient. The fact that they were completely silent didn't help much. Each one brandished short barreled rifles and carried an array of equipment on their utility belts. There were stun grenades, frag grenades, sonic grenades, flashbombs, mines, tripwires, spare ammunition clips, tool kits, a trio of serrated blades on each thigh, a pouch of unknown items and a spray can of some kind. Their body armor was thick and heavy, their footfalls weighty from steel plated boots and composite armor. The joints of their suits were a dark auburn, and even though flexible, sported smaller segments of armor plating. A ventilation tube stretched from 2 tanks on their backs to the back of their helms, a constant hissing sound emanating from them as their breathed in and out, eerily reminding Ord of Darth Vader's signature sound, but quieter and more menacing.

There were eight of them total, and they stood in no particular formation, though to his trained eyes, he knew that was intentional.

The front-most soldier spoke first after a few tense seconds of silence and looking back and forth between them. _"Captains Ord Karnac and Jane Traw. Follow us."_ His voice was heavily modulated and deep, giving no hint to even a gender.

Both captains nodded before the soldier added, _"No guards."_ It was a simple, minute motion, but Ord saw the trooper's finger slip over the trigger and the thick fabric of his gloved thumb move to the safety switch. The threat would have been wasted on any less experienced person, but Ord was no such character, and this soldier knew it.

Jane nodded and ordered her men to stay where they were. Without a word the trooper turned and walked back to the doors, the other with him splitting to allow the two captains to walk between them. They were going to be escorted there. As they walked toward the door, the light from within grew with more intensity. The foreign soldiers didn't even slow their gait. Ord assumed that with their tinted visors they could see just fine.

When they passed through the frame of the thick steel door, the light seemed to diminish, but remained at a constant level, not enough to blind, but enough to annoy. The inside of the station, contrasting to the rusted red walls of the hanger, had shining metal plating that, while dusty, was still in relatively good condition.

A squad of super battle droids passed them by, their metallic footfalls reverberating on the cold floor. Ord and Traw shared a look. Both were thinking similar things; _'The Jedi Rebellion was discovered not even a day after the confederacy was shut down, and the capsuleers were attacked only a day after. To have super battle droids functioning under their command would mean they were stealing technology from the CIS the entire time, or they, along with the Jedi were also working for the CIS.'_ There was another possibility too, but they wouldn't realize it until later.

The trip was uneventful except for numerous crewmembers mulling about, some shaking off their apparent cryosleep, others going on to their jobs like this happened every day. Several diferent turbolifts and one long empty hallway later they came to a heavy blast door that no doubt was designed to withstand significant damage.

The soldier stepped up to it and it opened automatically. He stepped through, both captains following behind him. Inside was a long conference table with nearly two dozen chairs. The whole room was a sterile white aside for black horizontal striped across the middle of the wall. A few dead plants that would have normally provided a welcome relief of color were being moved out to disposal. They'd died long ago. The entire wall behind them offered an amazing view of space and the facility. The room was located on the inside of the multi-ringed station, so one could look out the window and see the bustling activity of the other side of the construct. At the moment, the outside was swarming with patrolling ships, freshly awoken and ready for battle.

The intense efficiency with which these capsuleers had gotten to work having just woken from such a long sleep was frightening. It was almost as if they did this every day, considering the normalcy with which they acted.

At the table sat an orange haired man with numerous facial piercings. He wore a cloth on his brow with a metal plate on it. On the plate was engraved a cloud, the insignia of the Akatsuki. Around him we're several others, each one bearing the same metal plate on some part of their body or clothes. The other people around him were dressed in black cloaks that reached just below their knees and sleeves that could extend below their hands. Of course considering how they were sitting, it was difficult to tell.

There wasn't anything too peculiar about the others, at least compared to the man with piercings. There were two women and three men. One woman had blue hair and a single piercing on her bottom lip. Her hair was done up in a bun with a flower next to it.

The second woman had long blonde hair and an air of properness about her. Unlike the others, she did not wear a cloak but instead was clad in a Rebel uniform. _'Probably one of the Rebel commanders here,'_ Ord reasoned.

The first man had dark skin, but surprisingly had pale blonde hair. His facial hair consisted of a simple beard. A tattoo that looked suspiciously like a pair of horns adorned his left cheek. He wore dark sunglasses that concealed his eyes.

The second man wasn't really a "man" at all, but a young man with crimson red hair. His face was plain except for a pair of dark rings around his eyes and an equally crimson tattoo on his forehead.

The last man was an older looking man, probably in early-mid forties. He had rough black hair that was pulled up in the back and a small black goatee on his chin. Two nasty looking scars ran from the right side of his face over and below his right eye, ending at about the middle of his face.

Each one turned from each other to regard the two newcomers. Their stares were cold, save the likely Rebel commander who looked at them both warmly, more-so Traw than him. She stood up to greet them. "It's good to see you again agent Traw."

Jane nodded and smiled. "It's good to see you too…" Jane said hesitantly. "I'm sorry I don't seem to remember you."

The Rebel smiled and nodded understandingly. "You probably wouldn't, I have one of those faces. I'm commander Ariel Korvera, the commanding officer of the Rebel force here."

Jane gestured to Ord, who stepped forward with as friendly a smile he could put on his face. "This is Imperial captain Ord Karnac. I convinced him to see reason when commander Taric left us on our own."

Ariel nodded her head in recognition but her aura seemed to take on a different vibe to Ord. "Tell captain Karnac, was it extermination or enslavement?"

Ord gave her a funny face, not really understanding.

"This mission. Was it to exterminate the Rebels or enslave us?" she clarified.

Ord pursed his lips and looked down abashedly. "In all honesty both I and captain Traw were kept in the dark about the true nature of this mission. But also in all honesty, it _was_ extermination."

Ariel gave a look as if to say "I thought so."

Traw was about to speak in the name of Ord, if only for chivalry's sake when the lone orange pierced individual at the end of the table spoke.

"Express your bigotries at another time. As long as you are in this station, you will abide by our rules." His eyes found their way to the three guests and narrowed at them dangerously. "Is that understood?"

Ariel looked at him incredulously, preparing to launch into an extended tirade of how they wouldn't even be awake right now if not for them. Traw seemed to be the voice of reason and placed a hand out to stop her colleague.

"We understand," she said in an appeasing tone.

The man studied her carefully before speaking again. "Good. Have a seat."

All three of them sat down, the Rebels at one side and Ord on the other. This actually left the table with all the girls on one side and all the men on the other. The pierced man spoke again when he saw he ahd everyone's attention.

"My name is Pain, Akatsuki faction leader and Red Sun Rising CEO." It was a simple statement that was lost on the others, but Ord suddenly felt his excitement return with abandon. Here before him sat the mysterious man that so many boys his age pretended to be when playing "war." They would often play mindless games involving outrageous tactics and incredibly strategy, but to an adult's eyes were really just silly. And everyone always had a preference; the Akatsuki leader. He never actually showed himself on Holovision, either for interviews or conferences.

But one might catch a brief glimpse of him from the air; a passing holo-drone or news crew circling above a victorious battlefield would zoom in as far as possible to see the enigmatic "Pain," but never seemed to zoom in far enough. Oddly, now that he though back on it, he was always standing amidst ungodly carnage. If only he'd actually paid attention to what the reporters were saying.

The mysterious leader of an even more mysterious faction. That was Pain. And here he was, directly in front of Ord.

He just couldn't help himself: "I'm… I'm sorry," he apologized looking at the gathered individuals. "But are you _THE_ Pain? As in the one and only supreme commander of the Akatsuki Mercenary Coalition and the 'Lord of War?' "

Pain looked at him blankly. "Disappointed?"

Ord reigned in his tumultuous desire to question the man to death and composed himself. "W-well no. I just… As I recall you never showed your face to the public."

Pain looked at him passively. "I'm not the most social person, but neither am I opposed to showing my face."

Ord took this as his cue to remain silent. He'd question the man later, if allowed.

Ariel scoffed. "Suck up."

Pain's hardened eyes met hers in an instant but he didn't speak. For the first time, the dark skinned man spoke… sort of.

"Hey, the boss just said to mind your manners; you're representin' your banners, now chill that ass or you'll get the boot fast! Yeah!"

Ariel looked at the man strangely, not really abiding by his words.

The second, younger man spoke. "First impressions are everything, they say. You're doing an increasingly pathetic job of it."

Ariel looked incredibly offended that she'd just been chastised by a young man. She about confronted him when Traw placed her hand out in front of her. "I think it's best _I_ do the talking commander." Her words were slow and conveyed the message that "no" wasn't an answer. Ariel reluctantly, and only in the strongest form of the word, backed off and settled for a glare that she wished could kill the boy.

Jane continued. "I'm not completely informed of the mission, but I believe it would be best to convene with the Alliance leaders as far as any diplomatic relations go. With your permission, we can set up a conference immediately."

Pain looked skeptical. "I don't trust the HoloNet. Using it would be too risky."

The HoloNet was a galactic communications grid that was developed and used by the Galactic Republic and, later, the Galactic Empire. The HoloNet was a near-instantaneous communications network commissioned by the Galactic Senate to provide a free flow of hologram and other communications among member worlds.

"We can use the NEOCOM" suggested the younger one.

Pain nodded his head. Like the HoloNet, the NEOCOM was nearly a galaxy wide communications network, but it could only be accessed by those who had the right receiver, codes and frequency. In their excursions throughout the galaxy in the Clone Wars, Akatsuki had secretly set it up for private communications.

Back in New Eden the NEOCOM was a toolbar that accompanied any ship's consol. It allowed the pilot or captain access personal information, keep logbooks of people and agents they've met as well as places they've been, manage their mail, check their ship status, access the regional or galactic market, manage their science projects, check sector contracts for jobs or trades, and access a map of New Eden. There was also a "wallet" where one could attend to his finances, a jukebox for music (which each ship came with a standard package of space-trans tunes), a assets utility to view al of their possessions no matter how distantly away they left it (especially nice when looking for something you'd misplaced), and last but not least a browser that opened up to the most recent New Eden news reports, courtesy of _The Scope_.

In this galaxy, since the NEOCOM didn't exist, they had decided to make one, basing it off of the HoloNet in nature but keeping the NEOCOM functionality. They could even access information in New Eden from here if a transmitter was set up near a wormhole that led back.

Of course none of the opposing officers knew what they were talking.

The red headed boy pulled out a small communication device ad spoke into I, his voice borderline monotone. "Run a scan of all currently active NEOCOM transceivers and connect it to the Deck Twelve conference room."

"_Roger, scanning."_

A few silent seconds passed by before Jane hesitantly asked, "What exactly is the NEOCOM and how do you know our superiors know of it?"

Pain swiveled in his seat as the holoprojectors within the empty seats began to blink back to life. "The only way anyone could find this station is through the NEOCOM."

* * *

Mon Mothma sat wearily in her office, surrounded by red carpeted floors and various decorations gathered from across the galaxy. The window behind her covered the entire wall and looked out to the massive expanse of Coruscant's night life. Her desk was of a semi-circular design that wrapped around her, a large holoscreen offering a high-definition image of whatever she was looking at. This was essentially her sanctuary. In here, she was not to be disturbed by anyone unless absolutely necessary.

She was very tired. She'd just finished an exhausting conversation with the Alderaanian senator Bail Organa. Apparently he had sent a dispatch fleet to salvage all possible materials from an ancient research station on a tip off from a Rebel agent within the Imperial Navy. Truth be told she was going to do the same thing, and she admitted as much to Bail. The problem was that he'd done so without her knowledge or permission. The conversation had turned into an argument that ended in a mutual disagreement on policies.

She could feel a migraine coming on as she sat there. Reaching into a drawer, she pulled out a bottle of pills and popped one in her mouth, downing it with a swig of water. She sighed and leaned against her palm, the silence of her empty office soothing to her aching mind. She really needed some time off. _'If someone had told me leading a rebellion could be so exhausting, I probably wouldn't have believed him.'_

Her brief peace was disrupted by a soft chime from her desk. She groaned and pressed the _receive _button. "Yes?"

"Sorry to disturb you senator, but there's an incoming call on line one-thirteen." Mon Mothma blinked., raising her head from her hand. One-thirteen was a code given to her by Garm Bel Iblis several years ago…

Along with a device he'd told her to keep under lock and key. "Thank you," was all she said. She picked herself up and walked over to one of the bronzium busts that stood on a pedestal. Placing her hand on it and running it across the back of its head, a small piece of it fell of, revealing a hidden compartment. Inside was a disk. A device which held a powerful slew of information. She picked it up silently, realizing she'd almost forgotten about it. She took it back to her desk and slid it in the appropriate slot, simultaneously accepting Garm's call. His image appeared on her screen, his aged face not betraying his fierce nature.

"Mon Mothma," he said in a polite greeting.

"Garm," she began, "it's been quite a long time since you've contacted me directly."

Garm's face was impassive. "It's worth the need. Do you have the device I gave you?"

She nodded. "I've just placed in my console now."

"Good, if you receive any messages alerting you about virus and such, ignore them. It should soon ask you to allow the system to run. Allow it."

Mothma did as instructed. "If you don't mind my asking, what exactly am I installing?" she asked as the a synchronization bar slowly slid across her scree, Garm's image now shrunk down to a small box in the bottom left-hand corner to allow room for the progress bar.

"During the clone wars, a third party faction developed a secret communications network on the same scale of the HoloNet, but used it only for themselves. I've known about this for a while, and have been keeping tabs on the nearby nodes. I just received a report that indicates they've been accessed by someone else."

"I assume by 'third-party faction' you mean the Akastuki."

Garm nodded. "The Akatsuki called it the NEOCOM. Before the fall of the Republic, an agent came to me with the same disk you have there, telling me to install it and monitor it carefully. I've done so diligently ever since then."

"And someone has finally started accessing it?" Mothma asked, piecing the puzzle together.

"Yes. But it's not an outside force. Once it's down downloading on your end, activate the communications module. We'll be waiting." That was al Garm said before he ended to call, leaving Mothma to wonder why she needed to use this program, and who "we" was.

Soon the bar reached the other side and her console changed instantly. Now there was a large panel that stretched from the top to the bottom of her screen. Beside the panel was an empty gray box. What surprised her the most was it _spoke_ to her. In a soothing female voice it began,

"_Greetings Mon Mothma. My name is Aura, your onboard computer. I have been modified specifically to you and you alone. I will guide you through the steps of how to you use this new program, NEOCOM."_

Motham hesitantly spoke back to it. "Can… can you hear me?"

"_Perfectly. Do you have a preference on which part of the NEOCOM we discuss first?"_

She looked through the different options she had. There were several that drew her attention but she focused on the task at hand. "I was told to activate the communications module of this program immediately on startup."

"_Right away then. I will guide you through its basic uses."_ The program automatically highlighted the small box at the bottom of her screen. _"This is the chatbox. It can be used to send and receive textual messages with or without audio conference. You are currently the 'local' channel, the channel accessible to those all those in this system, provided they too have the NEOCOM. Upon exiting the system, the channel will automatically switch to the nearest other local channel. Certain channels can be programmed for certain uses, capable of accessing the HoloNet and analyzing many of its more lucrative frequencies and sifting through coded messages."_

Mothma suddenly felt overwhelmed with information. This was very interactive, but also fast paced. "Is this program what the Akatsuki used during the Clone Wars?"

"_I'm afraid I cannot answer that as the information is classified."_

'_So that would be a yes…'_ Mothma realized. They must have had a much more extensive intelligence network than fabled. "I was under the impression someone was waiting for me."

"_You have an incoming invitation to join a classified channel. I thought it best to tutor you in the basics of the program before allowing use of it. Would you like to receive it?"_

"Yes, please."

"_Very well. I will patch you in. Be aware this channel is above top secret and completely secure. Anything discussed in this channel will be record and monitored."_

Mothma took a deep breath. "I understand."

"_Very well. I'm initiating the channel hook-up now."_

The chat program seemed to freeze for a second before a tab titled _SEC CONF SEV_ appeared. On one side of the box, as the computer enlarged it, was a smaller box with a photograph of Mon Mothma. As she continued to look, he saw Garm's name too, along with the mug shots of three others she didn't immediately recognize. There were four other icons that, instead of pictures were only black silhouettes.

"Ladies and gentlemen may I introduce Mon Mothma, de facto leader and spokesman for the Rebel Alliance."

There were no "hellos" or "how are you's." There was instead total silence until one of the silhouettes lit up as a deep menacing voice spoke over the channel. The tone was unlike anything she'd ever heard and it sent chills down her spine. The closest thing she could compare it to was the Emperor, and while it didn't hold the same raspy rattle of age that gave him the air of authority he had, this man made it up with pure power; force of power and assurance of power was all Mothma could feel from him. For a moment she wondered who the voice could belong to, for it wasn't a common event when you met someone who could intimidate you better than the Emperor without even looking you in the eye.

"My name is Pain."

* * *

**A/N: And **_**voila! **_**Chapter done! As per requested, there was more Naruto/Starwars interactions than EVE in this chapter, but don't expect the EVE universe to be mute! As some of you may have noticed there were some heavy EVE themes in here, but it was in the same Star Wars setting we can all imagine, with the Naruto character we all know and love :) I look forward to writing the next chapter! Hopefully there will be violence :D **

**Leave your reviews on the way out!**


	3. Chapter 3: Hate Spike

**A/N: And here is chapter three! About time too, right? Well, school's been a big pain in tushy lately, so I haven't had much opportunity to write. But either way I still got this done, all for you my precious readers! :D Not much to say about my personal life, so i think we can continue on to **

**Time for thanks! **TsknRaider, Chewie Cookies, Chrisdz, Kage Bijuu, Frostius, Orchamus,god of stuff, god of all **(hmm...)**, Thoketan-XER298, RedRover, cavefox, marc (2), DBZLOVER, **and** Kyuubicannon **have my gratitude for reviewing. Thats 14 if my math is right, lets try to get 20 this chapter! I love hearing your guys' input and comments!**

**Regardig **Chrisdz's **question about Souls and Swords' next chapter, i'm in the process of writing it now :)**

**And **marc, storiereaderlovepie, DBZLOVER, Kyuubicannon, **and various other anonymous reviewers, it's a lot easier to keep track of my stories if you get yourself an account here. _SO_ much easier.**

**Now for the story! Enjoy! :D**

* * *

**An Old Hope, Chapter 3:**  
**Hate Spike **

Mon Mothma felt her breath catch in her chest. '_Pain…'_ She'd met with him personally only once, and that was several years ago. Their conversation consisted of only a small greeting before he was rushed into then Chancellor Palpatine's office. Unlike other men, Pain seemed to exude an air of absolute confidence in his own capability. Most leaders held their heads high based on their influential power, but Pain had seemed to her like one who possessed great _personal_ power. But how had he survived the Purges?

"A pleasure to meet you again," she began. "We met once before, long ago."

"_I remember. I'll say it doesn't surprise me that you've become a leader of this so-called 'Rebel Alliance.'"_ Pain replied.

"I'm afraid I'm not sure I quite understand what's going on at the moment. Would any of you like to fill me in?"

Garm spoke up to inform her. _"Despite common belief, the Emperor didn't completely destroy the Akatsuki. They were beaten, yes, but not destroyed. Pain could probably tell us the details of that later. Apparently many of them have been in some sort of… Cryo-sleep?"_

"_Yo! We been chillin' like villains, an' now your villains'll be feelin' the fire we be spittin' from a thousand killin'-__**-**__"_

All of a sudden the line went quiet, and an awkward pause fell over the group. Mon Mothma was almost taken aback by the new voice and the rhyming manner in which he spoke. After a few silent seconds, he spoke again.

"…_Bit my tongue…" _

"_That would be a 'yes'," _said a third man, though he sounded younger. _"The final battle of that era had already been foreseen and planned for. Unfortunately, there weren't enough resources to save everyone. RSR, as the main corporation of the Akatsuki alliance was protected from harm."_

In reality, there weren't enough stations with room for the several thousand capsuleers and millions of normal alliance soldiers and workers. Everyone else was simply reanimated in a clone back in New Eden, but their cloning techniques were unique, and that information couldn't be shared with just anybody.

"I think I understand a little. You discovered the Emperor's treachery beforehand, or perhaps literally foresaw it."

The other side of the line was silent to her remark. "Either way, this is especially good news, if you were to join our rebellion, we would be able to combat the Empire in proper."

"_No need to go that far Mon Mothma. We don't even know if they'd be receptive to that,"_ Garm chided her softly.

Regardless, Mon Mothma wasn't going to beat around the bush. The Rebellion needed them badly, and with the knowledge of the Emperor's deceit still fresh in the Akatsuki's mind (and the anger that surely came with it) this was the perfect opportunity to offer an olive branch.

"_We will not be joining your rebellion."_

Anguish! Instantly she felt as if she'd been a balloon and had been popped. Perhaps she had gotten a bit ahead of herself. They were still a mercenary faction, they would want money; money they knew the rebellion didn't have. And of course they would never join the losing side. _'I suppose it __was__ too much of a stretch... I shouldn't have thrown that out there so openly.'_

"_We'll be backing it."_

Her eyes shot open and she almost thought she heard wrong, but she heard Garm exclaim similarly, "W-what?"

She couldn't help but ask for clarification. "I… I'm sorry?"

"_Is that a problem?"_ Pain asked flatly, as if he'd said something as trivial as "good day."

When neither Rebel leader answered immediately he continued. _"Joining your rebellion would create an instant wave of surprise and fear. However, with the current galactic mindset, the general populace, and even the Imperial command would only think us a skeleton force of what we once were, as, truly, no faction could recover from the battle that beat us. (Fortunately we had our best forces locked away). That fear and surprise would fade soon after and your advantage would be lost." _

"_Backing you pens a different story. It would not be galactic news; instead, it would trickle out slowly, from mouth to mouth that rumor will spread. The Akatsuki… backing the Rebellion. Whether it is believed or not is regardless. The image the galactic populace would have of us, instead of a weak, shadow-of-their-former-self organization, would be that of a powerful faction with wealth and power to fund the Rebellion in its efforts. We would appear as the masterminds, not unlike how the Trade Federation and Techno Union were for the Confederacy. When they went, the rest of the dominos fell. We would be your trump card not only in battles and resources, but also in recruiting other worlds and agents to your cause."_

"_As for the Generals of the Empire, along with the indifferent beings of this galaxy… They will hear our name and remember the pain we wrought, and they will live every waking moment in fear, praying that their paranoia is only that; they will pray that we have not come back."_

He paused to let it all sink in. As far as Garm was concerned, this "Pain," whether he was the real thing or not, was _definitely_ as good as the one he'd met all those years ago. Subtlety combined with brash arrogance, and the knowledge of how to use his own infamy to prey upon the minds of his enemies…

Garm spoke slowly, and with purpose. "You are him, aren't you? The real 'Pain'."

He could have sworn he heard the smile on Pain's lips. _"You'll find out soon enough."_

Garm, despite himself, grinned with excitement. If this was the real thing, then the liberation of the galaxy from the Empire's tyranny suddenly became so much easier.

"_Await my next transmission."_

* * *

The channel shut off and Pain leaned back in his chair. The single Imperial and two rebel officers simply sat there in awed silence. After a few quiet seconds, Pain's eyes found their way to the others.

"I don't think everyone here has been introduced." He said as he stood. He gestured to the three on his left. "Killer Bee, Gaara, and Shikaku Nara. Gaara and Shikaku are both top commanders in the Akatsuki."

The Imperial nodded a greeting to each of them, though his eyes promised a thorough interview later. Pain's lips turned upward ever so slightly in a grin. He'd allow it. This man was probably only a boy when they were around. And he was sure Shikaku read his mind when he heard him mutter, "_mendokse._"

The rebel agent, Traw, looked shocked to hear that Gaara was in fact a commander. But she couldn't judge Akatsuki by her standards. She didn't know what kind of society they had; if anything it only meant the boy was a great commander. Ariel still looked miffed that Gaara, or more specifically a boy of his age, had rebuked her so carelessly.

"Mr. Pain, if it's possible, I'd appreciate it if I could have a tour of this station. I've never been on a space facility this big before."

Pain seemed to consider it for a moment. At last he shrugged and walked towards the room's exit, brushing past her in the process. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt. We'll start on the Cryogenic Floor."

The idea of seeing the place where thousands of people had been frozen for half a century wasn't exactly the idea she had in mind. But Jane couldn't be picky. As Pain passed her, she saw, curiously, his eyes were different from a normal human. They were grey, with a faded purple tint to them, and they had several concentric rings circling the pupil. Maybe Pain wasn't fully human?

The other three Akatsuki stood as well, following after. Killer Bee waited for her, her colleague and Ord to move before he left as well, bringing up the rear. They walked casually through the windowed hallways, passing by numerous security personal and engineers who worked tirelessly on aged, malfunctioning terminals. At the end of the hall they came to the same turbolift they came up in and stepped in, Pain keying in the destination for the freezing floor. It was a long trip down; nearly six minutes. No one said anything until the doors opened and they stepped out.

Ord looked up to realize they were on the absolute bottom of the hanger floor he'd seen on his way in the station. Immediately in front of them were thousands upon thousands of coffin like structures that had no doubt housed the sleeping Akatsuki. As he looked around he noticed that there was in fact a transparasteel ceiling several dozen feet above them that separated the chamber from the hanger. There were no visible supports, which surprised Ord. Wouldn't the ceiling fall on them? Even if it was transparasteel, it wasn't strong enough to stand that kind of weight with no supports. He voiced this to Pain who clarified. "There are tiny threads within the material that are infused with a special energy, keeping it from collapsing. Not only that, but it is also electrified and triple layered to the thickness of twelve feet. Coated with a special blaster resistant gauze and seeded with heat sensors, along with laser tripwires all on the floors, there is no one in the galaxy who could get in without being detected. Unless they flew of course."

"That seems a bit… overkill, don't you think?" Ariel pointed out bluntly.

"The Akatsuki took every possible precaution," Gaara replied monotonously. "What Pain didn't mention was that there were also hourly aerial drone patrols inside. And they _weren't_ set to stun, just in case you were wondering."

The distaste he had for Ariel was evident in his voice. Ariel only gave an annoyed look toward him, which went unseen since he hadn't even looked at her once since leaving the boardroom.

"How many of you were down here? I mean, out of everyone in the Akatsuki," Ord asked as he looked around, seeing only row after row of black capsules.

"Twenty-four thousand total. But most of them aren't pilots. This station was primarily for soldiers and workers. A few key individuals, like Gaara, Killer Bee and myself were placed here due to the station's location."

"Oi, so I'm not a key individual? Gee thanks," Shikaku said comically.

Jane rubbed an arm, feeling slightly uneasy with being in the chamber. "Still… mass freezing people… It seems so… macabre."

"Our other option was dunking them in goo. But we threw that out the window pretty soon. Why? Scared? 'Fraid somthin's gonna pop out and go **BOO?**" The last word was so loud that Jane actually stumbled back and impacted again a nearby control console.

"Haha! Ya fell for it… literally! Oh yeah, Killer Bee's rockin' the melody! WHEEE!"

Jane narrowed her eyes at the man in a peeved fashion while she attempted to get her heart back under control. She was about to tell him how guests should be respected a bit more, seeing as he would probably take it in good humor based on his apparent personality when a faint hissing sound caught her attention. It caught all of their attention as an unopened cryogenic chamber unsealed and opened up, turning orange as it heated up. Jane looked down to see she had accidentally hit the control panel just the right way to activate that pod's release command. The characters on the screen were foreign to her, but she assumed they detailed whose capsule it was. When she stepped back from it and looked at the quartet of Akatsuki apologetically, she saw that the boy named Gaara had his eye narrowed in seriousness, along with Pain. Shikaku's eyes were wide and Killer Bee (however weird of a name it sounded to her), while he wore sunglasses, had an obviously distressed facial expression.

Pain turned his gaze to Killer Bee as if to scold him silently. Bee rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I guess 'my bad' wouldn't quite cut it, huh?"

Pain took his gaze away from him and back to the warming capsule. "You'd better take responsibility for this."

"I guess that means helping subdue him, right? _OK._" Bee smiled, oddly, and ran in the opposite direction, looking around as if searching for something, looking from one empty pod to another.

"_Kuso..._ of all the people to accidentally-…!" Shikaku said as he wove his fingers together in a strange, but intricate pattern.

Pain gestured to his guests authoritatively. "You three should stand back. _Far_ back."

The three looked at each other hesitantly and slowly backed away.

"Faster."

They sped up.

**(Meaning of Life - Disturbed)**

As they watched from behind a series of empty capsules, the orange light glowed brighter and brighter as the device warmed the occupant to wakefulness. The transparent covering slid back, allowing the crisp cool air to flow inward.

Cerulean eyes opened for the first time in almost twenty years. A hand slowly lifted from within and gripped the side of the machine. Then another hand did the same. Then they both tensed as the muscles flexed and strained to lift the being within up and out. He was clad in a shredded black Tee-shirt and thin black sweats. The shirt was so torn it was barely even there, and even the pants had tears in them, though not nearly as much. He seemed to stare forward blankly before they seemed to focus on his surroundings. They fell on Pain.

Jane nearly gasped. The "man" was actually only a young lad, no older than Gaara. Why were they hiding from him?

The boy's mouth split to reveal fanged teeth, far sharper than any humans. His eyes narrowed and he snarled viciously. His fingers clawed inward as he stood his ground.

"Pain…!"

Pain, for his part, didn't even flinch. Instead he smiled warmly, but also almost mockingly. "Hello again, Naruto."

Jane never saw anything more incredible in her life. The boy called Naruto lunged forward at a speed that left her dazzled. In an instant he'd traveled from his capsule to Pain; a good fifty feet! But just as he was about to crush Pain's neck with his outstretched hand, the boy stopped in midair, as if suspended by invisible wires. His eyes were wide and he snarled loudly.

And if the boy's speed wasn't enough, what happened next left her breathless, and terrified. Everything in front of Pain seemed to fall apart: empty capsules tore loose from their holdings; steel flooring ripped from where they'd been welded together, tortured metal screaming in protest and crashing together in a mighty tumult. Where the boy had been… everything in front of Pain had been completely obliterated. The boy was nowhere to be seen.

But just as she thought the boy had died, he sprang forth from the massive mound of rubble in the distance, his bloody form silhouetted by burning red wisps of energy. The roaring violence was quiet to her, and she realized she was in mild shock from the initial attack. He rushed forward, a strange red aura flowing behind him, and the face he bore looked as if it would be better placed on a predator. Pain raised his left hand toward the charging berserker and narrowed his eyes.

"**Shinra Tensei!**"

A wave of destruction tore its way toward the approaching creature. But instead of barreling into it, the boy leapt up and clapped his hands together in front of him and inhaled inhumanly deep. "**Fuuton: Renkūdan!**"

As soon as he opened his mouth, the air pressure on the floor increased in density by several times the original amount. Pain didn't make any notion the air density was bothering him as each attack nullified the other. But the boy wasn't slow.

"**Fuuton: Gōkūhō!**" The air distorted as invisible blasts of the now dense wind fired their way toward Pain.

To her surprise, Pain's smirk seemed to widen as he entered a more study stance. With deft flicks of his fingers, the bursts of wind broke against him, doing nothing more than catching the coattails of his cloak. Before he could do anything more, the boy had bull-rushed him and tackled him to the floor, but not before ramming him into and _through_ numerous capsules. When the carnage cleared for her, she could see the boy's hands wrapped around Pain's neck. But Pain seemed not to notice the crushing grip.

Then she saw why. A torrent of earth shot forward, the leading edges of it forming what looked like an ominous hand.

"W-watch out!" She didn't know why she called out to the boy. Perhaps it was her human nature to warn him. Perhaps it was just instinct.

The boy turned in surprise and had just enough time remove his hands from Pain's neck to clap them together again and spew more air at the approaching onslaught of sand. "**Fuuton: Shinkū Taigyoku!**"

The air around her suddenly became so dense that she found her chest nearly unable to rise. A great sphere of air tore through the surge of sand like a knife through butter.

Perhaps it was due to the lack of oxygen to her brain, but she felt as if this was a dream. Such unnatural things were occurring right in front of her very eyes, and yet somehow she knew it was reality.

Before Naruto had even finished his attack, Pain raised his hand to Naruto's undefended back. "**Shinra Tensei.**"

The entire ground erupted as Naruto was shot high into the air, but not nearly to the height Pain had intended. "Using chakra to latch yourself to the ground before the blast hit you. Not bad, Kyuubi."

Pain smirked at Naruto, who glared down at him from high above. **"I'll kill you!"**

"You should know Naruto…" He looked up to the blonde who now floated downward slowly. "That's impossible."

Naruto's eyes narrowed before widening as a presence formed behind him. "WHEEEE!" Naruto barely had enough time to raise his arms in defense as multi-colored blades of light impacted into his arms. He grunted as he was thrown to the ground.

Killer Bee landed on the ground, holding two lightsabers in his hands. Both Jane and Ord were incredulous. "A Jedi?"

But that wasn't all. Naruto slowly stood from the crater he his body had formed. His arms where he had been slashed barely bore even the slightest scorch or burn mark. Naruto now turned to Killer Bee with a look of surprise. **"Bee…? You're with him…?"**

"Chill your ass kid, or I'll slice ya so fast your head'll spin!"

Naruto bared his teeth at the dark skinned man. **"JUST TRY IT!" **He roared as he threw himself at the older man. Be smirked widely as he reached down to his belt and threw five small cylindrical objects into the air.

Ord's eyes widened. "Don't tell me those are-…!"

Seven blades of light hissed to life, wedged in nearly every possible joint on the man's body. Elbows, hip, shoulder, wrists, even one in his mouth! Clearly this wasn't a spur of the moment stance; he was trained in the use of seven sabers. Even General Grievous only used four sabers, and he was more than a match for most Jedi. Of all the stories that had been covered on the news when he was a child, he'd never heard of this man before. Surely someone of such a strange and unique saber style (not to mention someone capable of even using a Jedi's weapon) being in Akatsuki would be mentioned at some point.

But his brief moment of wonder was ended as the swordsman leapt high into the air, spinning wildly, making a lighted buzz saw like attack. The blonde didn't move, but instead crossed his arms in front of him as the sabers came closing in. For moment, Ord believed the sabers would slice him up. But as soon as they met flesh, they stopped short. _'No, they didn't stop short. They actually hit!'_ What Ord saw next was incredible, and it stunned him more than anything he'd seen so far. The boy was actually holding two of the lightsabers by the blades, with another blade caught in his teeth. They crackled as they sought to melt through.

To his credit, Killer Bee didn't look surprised. Instead he leaned back a bit before throwing his entire torso forward in a massive head butt. Naruto was caught completely off guard. Something cracked when Bee's plated headband met the boy's nose, and was thrown back several feet. He brought a hand to his face and noticed blood on it. He growled deeply.

All of a sudden, Ord felt his stomach turn inside of him. Not out of disgust, but rather because it felt like gravity had suddenly shifted. Everyone must have felt it as well for they all looked in the direction the gravity was pulling toward. Pain had an arm outstretched, and it felt as if gravity were converging on the pierced man's palm. Naruto obviously made to move but abruptly froze as if in shock. **"K-…Kisama!"**

Ord wondered what was going on when he saw the boy's eyes glaring evilly at the black haired older man, Shikaku wasn't it? He held the upturned index and middle fingers of one hand in the grasp of the other hand, though loosely. "**Kagemane no jutsu, **successful."

Naruto was lifted up into the air and thrown harshly against one of the capsules, and Pain seemed hell bent to pin him there. To make things worse for the blonde, Killer Bee tackled the already immobile Naruto holding him down with brute force. The seven lightsabers were fastened to a grid of holsters on his back, keeping them out of the way. Add to it, the sand returned with a vengeance and swarmed both of them, though only pressing against Naruto.

"**Gaara…! Even you…?" **Naruto looked at the approaching redhead, but the look in his eyes was different. For a moment, the rage changed into pain. He felt _betrayed_. The boy called Gaara walked forward, arms cross over his chest. The sand slithered across the floor beneath him. Pain walked forward as well, standing across from Naruto on the other side of the capsule.

"I understand your anger, Naruto… And your pain. But believe me when I say you needn't worry."

"**Like Hell I'll believe that you-…"**

"Before you start throwing wild accusations, look down."

Naruto hesitantly did so. The only thing below him was the black sealed capsule he was being held against. With a wave from Pain, it opened, revealing its usual cool glow, and the person within to Naruto's wide eyes. "H-…Hinata…" The ominous darkness in Naruto's voice vanished along with the ethereal red aura around him. There she was, frozen as the rest of them had been, her belly still swollen with yet unborn life.

"The child lives."

Naruto's eyes shot up to Pain in disbelief.

"You didn't seriously think I'd freeze your wife with the possibility of hurting your child, did you?" Pain chided before waving a hand over the clear covering. Black seals appeared all over it. "Your child is perfectly fine. Both are in a state of suspended animation. The seal protected it from harm."

Naruto's eyes slowly watered as he saw the calm face of his wife still asleep. "Nagato… I-"

"-You needn't say anything," the Rinnegan wielder assured as he keyed in the WAKE function. Slowly the pale blue light turned to gold, and like the sun, gave life back to those within its light. The glass slid back and Bee released his companion. Pain turned away and strode back to the impromptu hiding spot the three guests were using. "It's safe. You can come out."

Each rose up unsteadily, looking around at the carnage that was wrought in so short a time. Ariel had to sit on the side of the capsule she'd hidden behind and captain Traw had a hand over her chest. Ord was looking around with a wide eyed expression of astonishment.

He addressed them casually. "Shall we continue with the tour?"

Jane looked from him to the blonde boy who was now cradling a tired looking woman who'd just sat up from the capsule. "Who… who is that?" she asked, still slightly out of breath.

Pain didn't look to see who she was talking about. "Naruto Namikaze. Akatsuki's second in command."

That name was foreign to Ord. He'd never heard of it before, not on the Holonet anyway. But as he turned from the sobbing young man to look back at Pain a phantom vision hit him like a ton of bricks. It may have just been him, but the way Pain was standing just then was eerily nostalgic. Then he realized why; his stance combined with the immense wreckage behind him was just like the distant battlefield reports he'd seen as a child.

'_There really is no doubt about it. He __is__ Pain.'_

Pain noticed captain Karnac was staring at him strangely but chose to ignore it. "It's impossible to see the whole station in a single day and I have no intention of keeping you here, so if you want to see as much as possible, we need to keep moving." He walked on, knowing they would follow.

* * *

**Location: Akatsuki Military Outpost Station, **_**Trinity.**_

"Oi, Nagashi!" Nagashi shook his head as the hazy white slowly vanished from his field of vision. He looked to his right and saw a friend of his, Juugo. "You alright?"

Nagashi took a moment to gather his wits and shook his head. "Yeah, yeah I'm alright. But I gotta say that was one of the weirdest cloning processes I've ever been through."

Juugo smiled sympathetically. "I know what you mean. There's a reason for it though."

Nagashi looked at the orange haired man curiously. It was then he noticed he was on a large floor with hundreds of others waking up just as he was, with those who were already awake getting up, stretching, and then going about helping the others.

"Apparently we were cloned into bodies that were in cryogenic suspension. The clone reintegration process took place while we were frozen."

Nagashi furrowed his brow at that. "Well… if that's the case how long have we been asleep?"

Juugo shrugged helplessly. "Dunno. But I might be able to find out…" he bent down to look at the control panel to the capsule Nagashi was sitting in. a few button presses later he commented apathetically, "Looks like about a decade or two. The machine's not very accurate, and I'm not good with technology anyway."

"Hah, like hell you aren't," Nagashi scoffed as he swung his legs over the side and pushed himself into a standing position, feeling his muscles stretch in protest.

"Only certain technology. I don't bother with the details of it though," Juugo explained defensively.

"Sure, sure. Who's the station commander then?"

"The commander? I think I saw Kakuzu-san earlier, so this is probably his station."

"Oh great,"Nagashi muttered. "The one person in the universe who literally cares more about money than his own five lives. Oh well, nothing I can do about that I suppose."

"That's awfully mature sounding for a kid your age," Juugo praised almost mockingly.

Nagashi looked at him, fake anger on his face. "Hey! I'm older than I look, ok?"

"Genetic manipulation's a bitch, huh?" came the voice of a third person who waked up.

Nagashi brushed the bangs of his bright red hair back to see who it was. "Oh hi their Darui-san! You're in this station too?"

"Yeah, I guess so. I was one of the first to wake up so I've already gotten my clothes and equipment. You should probably do the same. We're waiting on you and a few other key individuals before we have a meeting in the boardroom."

Nagashi looked down at himself and smiled. "What? I'm not decent?" he said as he spread his arms out, showing his bare chest and tight black shorts. Darui just smiled and waved the question off as he ambled away to some other place he needed to be but probably didn't want to go to.

Nagashi let his arms drop and smiled as he watched his senior leave. "Well I guess I should find some clothes. Though I wonder what my parents would say if I showed up to a meeting like this."

"I heard we'll be have a conference with the station they're at now," Juugo said humerously. "You can ask them then."

Nagashi laughed nervously. "Yeah I can tell you what they'd say: my dad wouldn't care so much but kaa-san would look at me with that serious glare of hers and say 'Namikaze Nagashi, I won't have any child of mine showing up in public like that. Sometimes I wonder about you,' or something like that."

Juugo chuckled. "I would think she'd also say 'Your father would be so disappointed in you,' and he'd be in the background giving you a thumbs-up."

They both laughed at the thought, mostly because it had a good chance of happening. Both of them turned and headed off to find some gear. Nagashi wondered though… What were his parents doing right now? Were they thinking of him? It'd been so long since he'd seen them because of the Clone Wars. He wouldn't show it, but he desperately wanted to see them again. Maybe get the whole family together again somtime soon. He smiled at the thought.

"Ne, Juugo…" Juugo looked at his companion while Nagashi kept his gaze on the ground. "What do you think they'll think of me? After all this time, I…"

Juugo smiled and rested a hand on Nagashi's shoulder. "They're your parents. They'll always love you. Besides, I knew them long before you came along; they're not the types to stay angry for long."

Nagashi's complexion softened when he looked back up. "I hope you're right Juugo, I really do."

* * *

**A/N: And there's chapter three! Did you guy's like it? Of course you did! Now tell me how much you loved it! Yes, that's right, the little review button can help you do that! Click it and see what happens!**

**Anyway, some of you are probbaly going to have questions, so i'll explain now. Basically, regarding the reason some of the people don't kno why they were frozen, when they died in the Purge by Palpatine, their conciousness was transfered to their new clones which were allready frozen, so to them it was like no time had gone by at all. And YES, i just introduced one of Naruto and Hinata's several children :D HURRAH! Also I'll elaborate more on why Naruto went berserk in the next chapter. Look forward to it! 'Till next time!**

**Eagerly awaiting your comments,  
Konerok Hadorak. **


	4. Chapter 4: Events of Unknowing

**A/N: And I'm back! This one took a while, I think the file info says its 60 days old o_O wow, I'm slow. Regardless, In EVE News, Clear Skies 3 was amazing, I've changed corps twice, and moved from null to Wormhole space. Plus, my friend has been hounding me to finish this chapter. Well, he gets his wish! Now onto the reviewing! **

**Surprisingly now questions this time. Awww…**

**My thanks go out to **Kage Bijuu, Riku Uzumaki, Chewie Cookies, RoyalTwinFangs, Orchamus, marc **(who reviewed the same chapter twice IMO)****, DB**ZLOVER, XllShadowMasterllX, storyreaderlovespie **(who also reviewed twice)**, TsknRaider, kreep13, Kyuubicannon, Frostius, omega5, OX-11, Koneko, ren **(which is short for Reneden who is from my corporation :))**, Freehawkth, **and** TwiceMarked.

**And now onto the chapter!**

* * *

**An Old Hope, Chapter 4:  
Events of Unknowing  
**

The rest of the "tour" went without incident. The station was extremely large, and Pain was right, it would take more than a day to see all of it. Even so, Pain had made it clear that he had no intention of letting them see all of it. Numerous times they passed by patrols of super battle droids that didn't even bat a photoreceptor at them. While walking beside a single B2 that happened to be going in the same direction as them, they just had to ask how they had control of so many separatist soldiers.

"Before the final battle, we brokered several thousand units from the Confederacy. They were tasked with protecting their assigned stations from any unauthorized intruders. They've done so faithfully 'till now."

Ord looked at the droid next to him strangely and said, "Well, why not just leave some soldiers awake to defend the station? I mean, I know it wouldn't make sense as far as the tirelessness of droids goes, but living beings are better than droids any da-…" He was cut off from finishing the sentence as he turned back to the droid only to find himself staring down the double barrels of its wrist blasters. His eyes went wide and he slowly raised his hands and backed away.

The other three guests did the same. Pain simply scoffed at them. "I wouldn't say things like that. They're a bit sensitive about that stereotype. You see, ours have been modified to perform at peak levels. That included giving them advanced self-awareness modules and reprogrammed them with some… 'special' thought processes." The droid lowered his wrist blasters, but Ord could tell it was glaring at him with its single red photoreceptor eye. Pain gestured them all to continue walking.

"What kind of programming was it?" Ariel asked a bit too bluntly. Pain didn't seem to mind it though, as he answered her simply. "We took out every battle protocol they have been made with and inserted our own. They are far more deadly… and creative than any common battle droid."

"No B1's I see." Ord commented nervously. "Good choice."

It was common knowledge that all B1 battle droids were total crap. They were only good for overwhelming defenders and pushing attacks. Their only advantage was that they were cheap and easy to produce and ship out. Most could barely even take a single, low powered blaster bolt and survive. B2's were a bit more expensive but well worth the cost.

"_Damn straight."_

Ord almost froze as he heard the digitized voice what was unmistakably the super battle droid's. Ord looked at it as if it was insane, and it turned to glare at him as well, as if to say "did I stutter?"

Pain simple smiled. "Like I said; special programming."

At length the droid deviated from their path and they continued on to another section of the station. The tour ended when he brought them back to the docking bay where their shuttles waited. "You may return to your respective ships and we will allow you Rebels to make communication with your higher-ups, but you must remain on your ships. You, Imperial," he turned to Ord, "will be permitted to wander at your whim around the station, but will not be permitted to send or receive any communication."

The two rebels looked offended, the annoying one more than the kinder one. "Why does _he_ get to explore this place while we cannot? He's an _Imperial!_ How can you possibly let him just-…" She cut herself off, unable to even explain the idiocy she was seeing before her very eyes. Jane gave up on trying to stop her compatriot and simply allowed her to receive her rebuke; she knew Pain had his reasons.

And like clockwork, he looked at Ariel with those commanding eyes and explained. "Because, Miss Korvera, this is my station, and if you ever want to leave it alive, you will follow my orders."

The air around them thickened in tension. Jane hadn't thought he would respond like… like _that_.

"Is that understood, Miss Korvera?"

Ariel felt her breath catch in her chest and she swallowed the lump in her throat as subtly as she could. "Yes sir. Sorry sir…"

"Good. You are all free to go about your activities." He turned to Ord. "Mr. Karnac, if there is anywhere, or any_one_ in the station you want to see, ask one of the docking guards and they will arrange transport directly to them."

Without another word, he left them all to their own business.

Pain sighed in exhaustion as the bay doors closed behind him. He didn't have the energy to work with politics. As much as he was a political figurehead, he hated the job. The worst part was that he was good at it. _'Nothing's worse than being good at something you hate.'_

He made his way back up to the station's upper levels where the living quarters were. His room was locked and untouched as he had left it so many years ago. When he opened it, he saw himself, or rather his primary body; Nagato. Linked vision sometimes came in handy when making sure you looked good. Each one of those other bodies he shared bodies with were now sleeping.

Nagato directed Deva Path to sleep as well on its assigned bed. Naturally his room was quite large to accommodate the other bodies, but being the head honcho of the Akatsuki got him tons of favors, and privileges. But one privilege he couldn't afford was the explaining he would have to go through when Naruto stopped fawning over his wife and unborn child.

That was going to be hell.

He'd also need to contact Konan when he woke up. It was important that the Akatsuki leadership form up before the rest of their forces. Add to that…

* * *

The Universe couldn't help but feel it; and undying urge to embrace its child. Man was becoming more… more than ever before! There was good in Man, now showing through in the small shining object in the universe. Good and Evil, Light and Dark, they were distinct, but now the Universe realized, it was not the separation of the two that would bring Man back into its good graces, but the combination of the two.

After all, one cannot live in reality without entertaining the whims of fantasy, and conversely cannot live in his own illusion without facing the harshness of the world around him. Now it understood, at long last, that Man was climbing his way back to the heights of itself.

It was the beginning of Mans redemption. But the Universe also knew, good actions were to be rewarded. The "Dark side" the denizens of the Corusca Galaxy were trapped in, or chose to serve, was powerful, and even with the power of the growing Light, it would not be enough to stand against the Shadow.

But the Universe, begin what it was, could cheat a bit. Man can only rise with the help of others. It had expected too much of Him. It should have known! Man fights Man, but that itself was redeeming! Man fought _with_ Man against himself. Even in the self-created chaos there was such a thing as friendship and camaraderie.

It had erred. The Universe knew that.

And with that realization, bestowed upon the growing light with the means to grow. And that gift was Time.

Man probably wouldn't recognize it as a gift, but then, he rarely did.

* * *

Naruto was over joyed, among many other emotions, at the moment. Not only was his wife and unborn child still alive and well, but now they were both here, safe in his arms. He supposed he really _shouldn't_ have doubted Nagato, but what did he expect him to do?

Hinata, still groggy from the cryo-sleep merely hugged her weeping husband blissfully. She had a feeling she knew why he was crying.

'_Nagato didn't tell him anything I bet,'_ she thought with annoyance. Although, she couldn't blame him. Even tens of thousands of years can go by and Naruto will still be as thick-headed as ever. If Nagato did something, it was because that was the best way to do it. That was just how he worked.

However, she wouldn't focus on that right now. She had her love in her arms, and she could have sworn she felt their child jump for joy in her womb at his touch. How babies knew someone's presence like that, she'd never know.

For the moment though, it was a secondary thought. Primarily, her blurry vision picked up the cryogenic freezing floor. "What the hell…?" is what she wanted to say, but all that came out was a strangled warble. Her throat was dry as a desert, and the whole area around her was torn up like a hurricane had just passed through. _'Oh wait…'_ she looked back to Naruto and rolled her eyes.

'_A hurricane _did_ go through it.'_

Naruto couldn't say he was more relieved. Nagato was loyal, and he honestly shouldn't have doubted him. But how could he have _not_ doubted him. "It's fine. I'd be more worried it you hadn't exploded in anger," is what Nagato would have said, or something to that effect. Still, his child and wife were safe and that was what was important. Even as she awoke, he could _feel_ the life energy radiating off of both her and their unborn child. Odds were it was due soon, but due to cryo-sleep, he was a bit foggy on time/dates. But then, he was both a guy and a dad; when _wasn't_ he bad with that? _'Comes with the territory.'_

And speaking of territory, Hinata was slowly waking up. Her eyes darting to and fro as she examined her surroundings.

"Hina? You OK?"

She blinked and squinted her eyes shut for a moment before she nodded and croaked out a, "yes." He held onto her and supported her with a hand on her back as she slowly rose from her coffin-shaped sleeping chamber. She accepted his help as her bulging belly kept her from doing so on her own. Naruto stood, his shirtless torso gleaming in the spotlights from above.

Hinata groaned slightly as he helped her to the side of the capsule, off of it and onto shaky legs. She nearly collapsed from her weak muscles failing to support her. In response, Naruto simply lifted her up and carried her in front of him. Hinata gave him a smile and thanked him, rubbing her belly absentmindedly.

"So, Naru-kun…"

Naruto, knowing what she was about to say, interrupted her. "I have no idea. We'll probably find out how long it's been in the next meeting, which should also include the Alliance members' CEOs."

She gave a nod in acceptance. Whenever the meeting was, it would probably be in a few days… or hours. Either way she was in no shape to participate right now. She was a mess! What with that weird residue from the cryogenic freezing, however many years of no showers, and personal standards of hygiene, she would _not_ be appearing on camera like _this. _

"H-hey Naru-kun, wanna take a shower later?" She asked with a pink stripe of a blush spreading over her face.

Naruto almost stumbled with the suddenness of the request but caught himself and laughed nervously, but not hesitantly. "Hehe, I'd love to, but I don't know how much we can do, since I'm still a little tired from sleeping for so long, and so are you, probably."

Hinata gave a skeptical glance back at the mess Naruto made and then back at him, raising an eyebrow.

"I was angry then, and I didn't realize how tired really was!"

Hinata have her eyes a meaningless roll. "Well, I guess it can wait for a little bit. Don't strain yourself though, if you don't think you can wait, just tell me."

Naruto gave her a thankful "foxy smile" (wide smile, eyes closed). "Thanks Hina! And don't worry, you'll know when it becomes too much for me!" They both gave innocent giggles at his comment.

As they left the floor, a disturbed pair of obliviously forgot Jinchuuriki stood there… not really wanting to say anything.

They both looked at each other and the larger one shrugged. "Hey, what happens on the freezin' flo' stays on the freezin' flo', bro."

The smaller red head gave a _wish-I-hadn't-seen-what-I-just-saw_ nod. "Agreed."

Shikaku on the other hand was groaning in discomfort. "They are _way_ too open about that stuff."

Gaara shook his head to clear it and began making his way out. "Actually, I doubt they even noticed we were here." Bee followed close behind.

Shikaku gave a deadpan face and glared their backs. "Then they're way too_ oblivious…_"

* * *

Leadership generally requires that you know what to do in every situation, or at least have an idea of what to do. Other leaders lead by money; if you can afford to support them, they will follow. But the greatest leader is one who can make other leaders become followers. Turn the shepherds into sheep, and you become untouchable. Just don't let them see your guiding hand in their own demise.

That was how Sidious was taught to rule. But in the end, he wasn't the one who used it. Prince Xizor of the Black Sun was easily the third most powerful being the galaxy below Darth Vader himself. Even though he was the self-proclaimed Prince Xizor, leader of the Black Sun criminal organization, the Empire tolerated him, if only for his power. Often he'd cut deals with the Empire, not to save his own hide as many might slander, but because the counter offer was equally as profitable.

One of his most recent dealings, or rather, spat of dealings, regarded an interesting thing that had been found. Naturally he'd informed the Emperor directly, and needless to say the Emperor was pleased with him.

It was not every day you found an interstellar anomaly such as a rip in space itself. Many a holovid had been made regarding such subjects. Xizor himself watched them for entertainment as a child, and even as an adult from time to time. Normally the story would go that the wormhole would close, trapping whoever was on either side there forever, with a faint glimmer of hope that they'd get back. That was why Xizor now found it curious that he was living those films now.

A _wormhole_ had appeared, for whatever reason, and inside his sphere of influence. When the Emperor found out, he'd immediately sent a fleet to investigate and back up Xizor's own patrol ships he'd stationed there.

Naturally, he'd _already_ sent a ship or two inside. They hadn't found much; some life supporting (but not life bearing) planets and some space facilities. He hadn't had time for an extended investigation before he thought it wise to wait for the Empire.

However, now, he was quite troubled. One of the two ships he'd ordered in had ceased responding.

It could have been as simple as a communications black out from another special anomaly, but something told him it was something much more.

His comlink beeped and he pulled it out.

"_Prince Xizor, the second ship inside has stopped responding. Should we attempt a rescue?"_

Xizor looked up from the device and pursed his green lips. "No. Let the Empire lose their own ships exploring it. Best not to lose any more of ours in there."

"_Yes my Prince."_

Xizor replaced the device back in his pocket. Something was afoot, and whatever it was, he hoped he'd somehow be able to profit from it.

Regrettably he did not know the truth.

* * *

The Imperial Star Destroyer _Deceit_ slid through hyperspace like a knife through hot butter, or was it a hot knife through butter? We'll just say it was a hot knife through hot butter. Such was the sophisticated inner musings of the captain aboard her.

A human of the age of fifty-two, he'd been born and bred on all the jabber about being loyal to the Empire and stuff, but in reality, he couldn't care less. Oh he was loyal all right. Loyal to the _power_ the Empire afforded him.

Naturally, he was as drunk on that power as any other officer who was given a prestigious position. And now, given a special assignment to go check out a wormhole that was reported to have formed somewhere in space. He didn't care to remember where exactly.

His small fleet consisted of two Imperial Star Destroyers, two Escort Carriers, and numerous _Carrack_ and _Tartan-_class cruisers. In all his fleet numbered 24 ships. If the anomaly proved to be advantageous for the Empire, more fleets would come to defend it, and probably study it.

"Captain Dusi, we're approaching the site location."

He didn't bother nodding.

The fleet slipped out of hyperspace next to a swirling mass of distortion that was the wormhole. Next to it was a few Black Sun ships. Unfortunately, much to his chagrin, he was not permitted to shoot them. Regrettable, yes, regrettable. But necessary he supposed. Oh well, he'd kill something later.

"Have those 'experts' we brought along do their thing with the wormhole. And don't bother me with the details, just do what they want," he said to a nearby subaltern.

* * *

Life is boring. That's the only thing that Black Lister could think of at the moment. Ever since the day he and his alliance had been forcibly expelled from that other galaxy, life simply hadn't been the same. It had been monstrously dull with nothing else to do but run missions for the Caldari State and carve out a place in zero-security space. Even though he'd had years to train himself with unending amounts of money and resources, he simply had nothing more to do but wait for the rest of eternity to achieve his goals.

Like anybody how had too much time to think introspectively, he'd begun devising his own malicious plans to break away from his alliance, along with a group of friends and steal everything they could get their hands on. But that had quickly been discarded. He already had everything he could ever want, and more money than he knew what to do with.

The only thing he had that was truly entertaining was women, and he didn't even have _that_. What with Kora breathing down his neck about genetic diseases and security risks… the list of ways she could keep him from having fun was endless.

But by either some sense of moral obligation or just plain old lack of motivation, he didn't have the strength to ignore her. _That's _how bad his life was at the moment. And he wasn't the only one. Everyone else in the alliance that had gone into the wormhole those few decades ago had experienced the lull in excitement as he had.

But no one spoke of it. No one mentioned the other world. A direct order from Reyta Werdin, who had taken command over the Akatsuki Alliance in Pain's absence, directed them to keep their mouths shut about it.

Half of Akatsuki had moved on, meaning half of Akatsuki was filled with newbies who knew nothing about the secret they held. Those old Akatsuki veterans who were now out and about in other corporations and alliances still kept in touch, sometimes.

But no one had forgotten. How could they? It was like a dream you'd just woken up from; you want to go back to sleep and keep dreaming it, but realize it's not real. The only difference was that it _was_ real. All of it.

There wasn't a day when Black Lister didn't think about those blessed days. Back when his heart thumped in his chest and his breath came in short supply when he fought. Well, it would have had he actually been breathing. Unfortunately, amniotic fluid filling your lungs when you sync with your ship kind of keep you from breathing… At all.

He hoped dearly that something would happen soon that would bring him back to that level of elation and excitement. He dearly, dearly hoped…

* * *

**Time: Two days later  
Location: Akatsuki Hibernation Storage Facility (A.H.S.F.) **_**Trinity**_**.**

Naruto yawned and stretched his stiff limbs as he sat in his _very_ comfortable leather chair. It was one of many that surrounded the conference table. Numerous friends stood around him along with several strangers he'd never seen before.

Shikaku, Bee, Gaara, Pain, those Imperial and Rebel people, and then Hinata who sat on his lap (or rather, _had_ sat on his lap until the strangers arrived and etiquette demanded she sit in the seat next to him).

He'd slept for a full day after he'd woken up. He'd gone to his room, which had remained untouched since he'd been put under (though he could have sworn some of the pictures were moved around), took a quick shower, enjoying the warm water, got out and fell on the bed asleep, doing all he could to wait for his wife's shower to finish before he drifted off. He failed, but he woke up to find her in his arms.

The next twenty four hours were spent reassuring each other of the love they bore for their spouse, from which Naruto was still a bit tired, and Hinata a bit sore. Not that she'd show it in public. She bore the pleasure-pain of strained muscles like a trooper, and for that Naruto felt a type of pride in his chest.

He lazily noted that everyone had arrived, and tried to perk up as Pain began talking.

"Now that you're all here, we can begin."

A screen on the wall adjacent to the massive window at the far end of the room flickered to life, showing the faces of Garm Bel Iblis, Mon Mothma, the Minister of Supply Ral'Rai Muvunc, the Minister of Finance Viscount Tardi, and the aged General Jan Dodonna.

"May I be the first to say that it is an honor to finaly meet you, Mr. Pain. I've heard great stories about you, as I'm sure we all have," Ral'Rai started out with a smile.

Viscount Tardi nodded in agreement. "Indeed. Though, one must question your validity considering all the paraphernalia the Empire spread around at the end of the Clone Wars."

General Dodonna looked at his colleague with a smile. "Come now Viscount, there's no need to sound so glum about it. Garm's assured us that they are who they claim to be."

"One can never be _too_ sure. Why would the Empire lie about a win. Lie about a loss, anyone can understand, but lie about a victory? I find that hard to believe."

"It's not a lie if you don't know it's not the truth," Pain interjected between them.

The images on the screen looked at him in contemplation before nodding their heads. Tardi gave a reluctant, muffled grunt. "Well, I might as well be the one to ask the question. No one else would."

Garm gave a reassuring nod to his friend. "It was a valid question, Viscount, nothing to be ashamed of." He turned to the assembled Akatsuki and international officers. "This is more or less an official meeting to finalize just what you will be offering to the Alliance, and what we could possibly offer you."

Pain, as stoic as ever, spoke in his commanding voice. "The Akatsuki can provide direct combat forces for any operation required, though at the moment our forces are severely limited. Less than a tenth of our Naval power is at operation capacity."

That brought surprised faces to the faces of the Alliance representatives. "Less than a tenth? That's not very much Pain," Tardi said. "As I recall correctly, your Akatsuki had only a few major fleets, and they weren't very big in comparison to the fleets fielded by the Republic or the Confederacy. I wouldn't assume they've grown any in your… absence."

Pain merely looked at the man with those pale grey eyes and smirked at his comment. "Fleet size will not be a problem."

"Then you will be able to supply ships to assist us in our endeavors?" Mon Mothma asked, ignoring the question her colleague was going to ask (chiefly being "why is that?").

Pain turned to her, his smirk gone. "Naturally. We will also fund the production of ships. If you have any shipyards, we can begin creation once out blueprint s have been sorted out."

The Rebel leadership looked between each other and shifted nervously. "We… we don't have any major production facilities at this time," Garm said politically, making sure to add "at this time" at the end of the sentence.

Pain was silent for a moment before he spoke again. "Then we will begin construction of the facilities as soon as possible."

"The dead-space pockets we mapped will be perfect for that," Shikaku offered from where he sat.

At the quizzical look from the Alliance leadership, Pain clarified. "Mass-shadows."

The various rebels exchanged confused glances at each other. "Mass-shadows aren't navigable. Not by hyperspace anyway. I mean, you _could_ use sublight drives, but the amount of time needed to build orbital construction facilities by ferrying supplies to them… That's extremely cost-_in_effective. Even the Empire wouldn't bother with that."

"It worked well enough for us," Pain countered expressionlessly. The following silence proved he'd made his point.

"Very well, then, well go along with it. But we can't provide very much in the way of payment yet. Will you be able to manage?"

Pain gave Garm an authoritative look. "You provide the targets, we'll provide the ships. If you have construction workers, we'll need everyone you've got until we get the Akatsuki running at full again."

General Dodonna gave a reluctant nod after several seconds. "Very well, we'll see how this goes. When we find some targets of opportunity we will contact you."

"Agreed."

And one by one the Rebels disappeared from the screen until only Mon Mothma and Garm were left. "I wish you luck then in the meantime," Mothma said as she went to leave.

"Hold a moment Mon," Garm said, holding out an arm as though it would physically stop her.

"Pain, I'd like to ask a question hat's been bouncing around in my head for a while."

Pain gave him a suspicious glance before he nodded. Garm looked down at something on his desk, probably outlined notes or something like that.

"It's about the origins of the Akatsuki. According to official records, the Akatsuki first showed up at the start of the Clone Wars, and vanished after their 'destruction' at the war's conclusion. However, nothing before that time exists."

"We came from the Unknown Regions. Such is common knowledge." No one else could sense it, but Naruto could perceive a near-excited tone in his cousin's voice.

"Such is common _speculation_. There is no hard proof, either by self-admittance or hard study that you actually came from the Unknown Regions. And even though I don't know anything about the goings on of the U.R., I doubt a mercenary coalition could exist in such an environment. Yet yours came out of it, supposedly, with your entire forces intact and a wealth of ships, men and money at your disposal. And every one of your soldiers is as tightlipped as you are about that."

Naruto gave a scoffing smirk, though it went unseen, and unheard, by everyone else, save Hinata, who knew him well enough to know he would do that before he actually did it.

"So an organization with no known past or connections suddenly came out of the Unknown Regions with a vast army ready for use to the highest bidder. Not to mention your unique technology. From what I've researched, your ships operate on different weapon systems, engine drives, even hyperspace cores. Then you have that strange Pod technology that everyone knows about and yet _doesn't_ know about."

Garm fixed him with a hard glare. "Technology like that surely would been seen somewhere I the galaxy for how well advanced it is. Yet no recordings of anything even _close_ to it have been found. It's as if your entire group suddenly appeared overnight and carved your own way into this galaxy. Leading to my ultimate question; Pain, where exactly are you from, and who or what do you represent?"

Mothma looked at her colleague with concern, worrying that he was delving too far into their personal backgrounds, but now that she thought about it, those were excellent questions. It seemed as if the Akastuki were content to hide behind the rumors of them that had circulated the galaxy. Everyone just assumed of them vague origins and left it at that. No one actually _knew_ about them. And now, her interest was piqued.

Pain was silent for several moments as Garm glared at him with a commanding gaze. At last, Pain's eyes closed and he smirked, letting out a light laugh. "I wonder how many years it's been, since someone seriously asked me that question…"

He said nothing for a time, the whole room being quiet as well, and some of the other shinobi giving discreet looks to each other. Pain's eyes opened, and his unnatural eyes seemed to glow dimly. "Very well, I'll tell you; our origins, our way of life, our past, the source of our technology, money and power."

Garm leaned forward in his seat, shifted to barely rest his chin on one hand. Was it really going to be this easy? Was he really going to find out the secret answers to those decade long questions?

And then with six simple words, Pain let loose the phrase that no one in Akatsuki was every allowed to say, yet placed all of their pride in; the six words that could make them the most powerful organization in the universe.

"We are not from this galaxy."

* * *

The space was quiet, silent, and stagnant. Dead metal that floated in the black abyss of space. All was safe, all was secure. Nothing had changed in numerous millennia. Everything was as it should have been

All was safe, all was secure.

Then they felt it. A disturbance in their territory. The specific energy emissions only generated by a ship's FTL drives. It was not theirs, for no one was yet awake.

All was safe, all was secure.

But something was definitely amiss.

Warbled sounds of transmitting data shot from one opaque form to the next. Lights blinked to life from their black hiding holes. Formless, and void, they began was whirr to life.

They could sense _it_.

An unknown. An obstacle. A danger.

A _threat_.

In an instant the forms all felt the same urge. A desire to… _clean_.

'_Clean...' _came the thought from one of them. The darkness answered it.

'_Clean it all.'_ The assurance soothed it, as if it had been worried it was in the wrong.

'_It must be cleaned,'_ it thought to the darkness around it.

Again it was answered. _'It must be cleaned.'_

As one, the determination of one purpose was set in their minds. _'All obstacles will be removed.'_

'_Clean it all, it must be cleaned… Clean it all… Clean it all… All obstacles will be removed… it must be cleaned…'_

With a surge of motion, they gushed forth from their dens. As one, they moved with a single purpose. That single goal set in their minds.

The Sleepers were awake.

The Sleepers were aware.

The Sleepers had seen the enemy.

The enemy had not seen them.

'_Clean it all.'_

* * *

"What do you mean by that?" Garm asked confused.

"We came from another galaxy, using wormholes. Where we come from, special anomalies like wormholes are extremely common, but they only led to a single other space. But the one we found led here, and we moved as much of our infrastructure into it as possible, including forces and personnel."

He paused as he let that sink in. "We didn't lie when we spread rumors that we were from the Unknown Regions. We really were. The wormhole we found deposited us there. After we set up, we came to the known galaxy and what came next is history."

Garm gave Pain a skeptical look. "Ok then, let's say I believe you. Where is the rest of your alliance then? Spread throughout the galaxy?"

Pain shook his head. "No. Most of them are back on their side of the wormhole, which I might mention is closed."

Garm sighed slowly. "What are the odds that they will find a way back here?" he asked.

"Wormholes are only open for several days at most. However, with the technology exclusive only to me, we've been able to stabilize the wormholes with gravitic projection machines. When we found out about the Empire's treachery, we closed this side of the wormhole, but back in our home galaxy, the machine is still running. That means that that wormhole will always be connected to the one in this galaxy. The problem is finding that single wormhole."

"Once we find that wormhole, provided it's in a secure place, we can recreate the stabilization array and use it to bring supplies from our home. Until then, we must make do with what we have here."

Mon Mothma, had less trouble believing it, simply because it all seem plausible. "What happens if the wormhole is in an unsecure place."

"Then we'll close it and search for the next one. It could be anywhere in the galaxy, and it's location will change daily. The odds of finding it with your technology will be nearly impossible."

"Then how do you propose we find it?"

Pain gave smug smile to the Alliance general. "There are secrets I simply cannot tell you. Perhaps one day you'll figure it out on your own."

The general didn't like being kept in the dark, and it showed on his face. But he let it go for now; he wanted to know more. "Tell me about your galaxy. Are they all as technologically advanced as you?"

"There are five major empires in our galaxy, New Eden," Naruto said from his eat. He was tired of not being able to talk. "The Gallente Federation, Caldari State, Amarr Empire, and the Minmatar Republic. The faction is the Jovian Empire, but they keep to themselves. No one is allowed in their space."

'_Well, no one but us,'_ Hinata thought from beside him. One of the perks of being near-super humans.

"Aside from them, there are many capsuleer corporations and alliances. They follow no authority and as long as they don't harm innocent civilians, they are left alone to do what they want. They can even join any of the above factions. The four empires have been at pseudo-war with each other ever since a few years ago when the Minmatar invaded Amarr to free their brethren and the Caldari took back their home world from the Gallente."

"And how did that go?"

"the Minmatar were actualy a group separate from the government, and even though their people were in slavery in Amarr, CONCORD ruled it as unnecessary conflict."

Garm raised an eyebrow. "CONCORD?"

"The overseeing body which protects the peace between the four nations. Anyway, the Minmatar managed to get most of their people out, and the Caldari were able to reclaim their home world. Ever since then, the local militias have been fighting each other for superiority."

"And your alliance just happened to find the wormhole and utilize it?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"However, of all alliances you should consider yourself lucky it was ours." Shikaku interjected. "Anyone else would have just played both sides of the Clone Wars, sucking everyone dry of resources and intelligence. There would be no honor and no forgiveness. That's just how capsuleers work. They don't care about anything or anyone but themselves."

"At least we're more… _morally upright_ compared to our fellows." Pain concluded. "In any case, if you were to go to our galaxy, you'd find it's an even worse place than here. The Empire here is of no comparison to the atrocities that happen every day in our apathetic home."

Garm gave a slight chuckle. "Then perhaps you can use that evilness against the evil here. I'll contact you again soon."

His picture winked out, leaving only Mon Mothma's image remaining. "Well… You've given us a lot to think about Mr. Pain. I look forward to learning more about you. All of you." And her picture to disappeared. The screen turned black.

"Well that was different; totally different temperament, yeah." Bee said from his seat where he had been silent through the whole exchange.

Pain turned to him. "You mean me?"

"Yeah man, I mean you totally woulda shot 'em down had it been any other clown."

The rebel representatives in the room, who had gone unnoticed and unacknowledged throughout the chat, looked at him with disdainful glares at being referred to as clowns.

Pain looked at the black man for several moment s before looing away and smirking. "Perhaps I'm becoming soft. Time changes everyone after all. Which reminds me…" he turned back to the screen as he pulled up the NEOCOM. "We should probably check up on our allies on the other side."

"But how?" Naruto asked. "Don't we need a transceiver next to the wormhole for the message to go through?"

Hianta shook her head. "The message will only respond to NEOCOM transmitters so it'll bounce around all of the Galaxy's NEOCOM nodes we've set up until it finds the wormhole and goes through it."

Pain smirked. "It'll also act as a locator for the wormhole itself. Once the message gets through, we'll have its general location."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "That mean I get to fly again?"

Pain chuckled lightly. "Yes dear cousin, it does. I kept your ship here along with my own for safeties sake."

Naruto's face lit up as he thought of his Legion cruiser. Oh to connect with it again! "Wait you kept you Imperial Apocalypse here?"

"Of course, why?"

Naruto gave a shrug. "Well, I kind of expected you'd keep that in a safe place. I mean, saf_er.._."

Pain turned away from the screen as it began transmitting. "The saf_est_ place to keep it is near to yourself. In fact, everyone of your ships are here." He gestured to Hinata, Bee, Gaara, and Shikaku.

Hianta perked up. "You mean my Proteus is here too?"

Gaara raised an eyebrow. "And my Tengu?"

"Yes. They're all here. Even your Sleipnir, Bee."

"All right! Motha' fuckin' tight!"

Pain chuckled at them all. They were like children. But then, he could understand them. He felt similar to his battleship. He loved it like himself and eagerly looked forward to piloting it again.

* * *

**A/N: And there's chapter four! Ow! I'm sunburnt... Oh well, that's what I get for not putting on sunscreen! Anywya, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! If you did, press the shiny "REVIEW THIS CHAPTER" button and and tell me! If you didn't enjoy it, well, they say ignorance is bliss so... Don't tell me ^_^ Seriosuly though, if you ahev any questions don't be afraid to ask me! I'd be more than happy to answer them! **

**'Till next time, _adieu!_**


	5. Chapter 5: ReAdvent

**A/N: Well, chapter five is finally complete! I know, took me long enough, but since Konoha's Silver Shinobi kind of diverted my attention, I'd not had a chance to work on this, save recently. So NO! This story is NOT abandoned NOR forgotten! This is my _legacy!_ Ok, maybe not my legacy, but it is a precious investment of time and energy; one that I will gladly continue whenever possible. Not as long as I would have prefered, but I wanted to get it out there and to you guys regardless. **

**Thanks** **to those who reviewed the last chapter! Those being** Kingdark, RoyalTwinFangs, Konekoeureka, Chewie Cookies, Kage Bijuu, marc, Orchamus. Riku Uzumaki, storyreaderlovespie, DBZLOVER, omega5, TwiceMarked, Breaniver, Frostius, cavefox, Jigoku no Yami, **and** foxeatfox.

**Also, a neat update:** **CCP has released a new Ship Viewer! Now you can more easily vizualize (and find) the ships mentioned in this story! Rather than having to search throught that old wiki for bad pictures of the vessels, you can now look at them in all their awesome glory! The link is on my profile page. Also, As far as I can tell, it doesn't have every ship on it, but it does have a lot of iconic ones. No doubt they'll add the rest soon, so bear with it for now.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 5,  
****Re-Advent**

Black Lister sighed as he settled into his comfortable couch that sat in front of a massive widescreen television. After having cleaned off a majority of the goo that suspended his animations while in his pod, he was thoroughly tired. He hadn't even done that much that day. "D'ya know that you can get tired from sleeping too much?" he asked the room's other sole occupant.

Kora Ikari sat at the table in the room, munching on some food. "So… you're so bored, you're tired?"

"Pretty much."

She shook her head in irritation. "I told you to hit the gym, I swear some of your muscles are disappearing."

He gave a blank look at her, and then down to his muscular chest, then back up at her. He settled for a shrug before picking up the remote and flipping the channel.

"Doom and gloom, doom and gloom, doom and gloom… Oh look! More doom and gloom."

The Caldari woman threw down her fork and stood up marching over to the couch and swiping the remote from his hand. "I swear one day I'm going to hurt you," she said as she turned the channel to the Mind Clash Championships. "There, happy?"

He looked around at himself and the room and gave her a wry smile. He shrugged. "The only thing more I could ask for is a bottle of Quafe."

The woman rolled her eyes and stomped off somewhere else.

He sighed as he settled in to the couch to relax and watch the championship. It was almost a full ten seconds of almost-perfect leisure before his com-link buzzed in his pocket.

"Oh, come on!" He whipped the device out and saw that it was an alliance-wide Priority One message. Opening it, he began reading through.

Kora came back into the room setting down a pack of bottles and tossed one at her captain. "Here's your Quafe, lazy-" she stopped speaking when the bottle hit him square in the head from behind and he didn't flinch.

He didn't react at all.

She furrowed her eyes and she looked at him. "Captain?" she asked.

He didn't answer. He was staring down at something in front of him. She walked over curiously, looking over his shoulder at the com-link in his hands. She didn't get far before he held up the Quafe can absent mindedly. "Not this Quafe. The _other_ Quafe."

Kora narrowed her eyes before they widened, suddenly knowing what he was talking about. "Uh-uh! No way! I told you before I'm never letting you drink that stuff! Do you know what it does to your insides?"

His voice was low and commanding, but held a bewildered, restrained excited tone. "Kora, the other Quafe. Now."

She looked at him worriedly before she went over to a cabinet and opened it up. Inside was a safe to which she dialed in the combination and pressed her thumb up against the print-reader. It opened with a hiss and she took out a specially labeled Quafe bottle. She closed it and returned to the back of the couch and handed it to him. Of all Quafe variations, Quafe Zero was a special limited edition brew. It was also _very_ bad for you.

He reached behind and grabbed it, easily popping the lid off and taking a long, deep gulp. He lowered the bottle with a sigh. He nodded his head slowly. "Yup."

"'Yup' what?" she questioned, peeved at his vagueness.

He reached behind him and handed her the com-link, which she took and began reading. It was several seconds later that she reached over and plucked the bottle from his hands, downed the whole thing and placed it on the stand beside him.

"I'm getting another. Want one?" she asked. The full implication of what she'd just read hadn't hit her yet, but when it did, she wanted to have _something _in her system. Normally she was opposed to drinking Quafe Zero, but in this case…

"Yarp," he replied, nearly giddy with restrained excitement.

She tossed one over to him, which he caught, even as she popped her top and began drinking.

They stayed that way for several minutes before either dared speak to each other.

"So… back to the Other Space then?"

With a heavy breath, he nodded. "I'm gonna splurge on ships, ok?"

She hopped over the couch and landed next to him. "No more than three billion. You need to have _some _money left over_._"

"Whatever," he said as he pulled up the regional market and contracts pages. He was going to be fully prepared this time.

* * *

Captain Foow Dusi was not a personable person. He was bossy, smelly, snide, fat, and overly malicious. Based on those conditions, it's a surprise he hadn't made Grand Admiral yet. Sadly, he wasn't all that bright, but the Empire trusted him enough to send him on a guard mission to investigate and protect the space surrounding the special anomaly.

It was a gruelingly dull task; he couldn't shoot anyone, he couldn't go anywhere, and he himself had nothing to do but bark out superficial orders that sounded at least slightly similar to actual instructions. Twenty four ships under his command and he could do _nothing_ to use them. At least, not the way he wanted.

"Haven't those scientists found anything out yet?" he barked to a nearby communications officer.

"Nothing new since that last time you asked five minutes ago," the older man replied, clearly annoyed.

Foow narrowed his eyes at the man dangerously. "I've executed children for less than that comment officer."

The man, suddenly feeling the weight of his mortality, nodded his head shakily. "Yes sir, s-sorry sir."

Foow, settled back into his captain's chair and sighed as his massive form melded into the creases of the seat. They were built for luxury, but sadly chairs weren't of the one-size-fits-all variety. As comfortable as it was, if he settled too far into it, he'd not want to get up. It would always pinch him here and there. A quick fix to the problem was to wear padded clothing, of which his uniform didn't fit into that category; it barely fit _him!_

But while the fact was painfully obvious to anyone who bothered to lay eyes on him, no one risked voicing it. It was a running gag in that any joke regarding it was _gagged._ Not a word of his weight was said while serving onboard his ship.

At the moment, it didn't look like they'd have the opportunity to poke fun at him for a while. Several days after arriving, a series of scout drones had been sent into the wormhole and a second fleet requested to assist them by their most _illustrious_ captain.

But unbeknownst to them, today would mark the day their lives changed forever.

"Captain, we have a message coming in from one of the astronomers," remarked a second coms officer.

"Put it on," his deep voice commanded.

The middle window of the bridge was eclipsed by the holographic figure of the specialists' team leader. "Captain Dusi, we have news."

"Tell me quickly Mr. Lik, or I'll have you detained for lack of cooperation."

Lik gave a cynical smile to show he knew the captain would never get away with it if he did. Lik was one of the first people the crew of the _Deceit_ had ever seen directly disregard their captain. "Such jests are not worth our time captain, but the information I've gathered is."

"Well? Out with it then!" said Foow as he quickly grew irritated at the other man.

Lik gave a serious glare at the obese man and continued. "Obviously the wormhole has been discovered to lead to other parts of space, but the initial question was 'what other parts of space?'"

Dusi nodded at every third word and Lik was sure the fat official had no idea what he was talking about. But for the benefit of the uneducated crew members who did, he continued.

"Substantial evidence has been gathered to indicate this particular wormhole leads to space outside our own galaxy," he said as he leaned forward, his phantom visage lowering to meet the seated captain's eyes.

Dusi may not have been keen on the sciences of space, but he was smart enough to realize the important twist the conversation had suddenly taken.

Lik straightened back up and went on. "We've also happened to lose a series of probes we've sent through. It doesn't take a genius to realize there's a potential threat inside it. It could be nothing, but it could also be something. I would suggest sending for a reserve fleet immediately."

"You needn't worry about that 'professor'" Dusi said sporting a superior smirk while shifting his body up in the chair. "I've already requested reinforcements to better defend this valuable… find."

Lik, clearly unimpressed, simply raised his eyebrows and commented, "How clairvoyant of you." And the transmission ended.

Lik shook his head wearily. Why did a man as smart as himself have to work with common navy grunts? He'd never know the answer. But then it was probably good the captain was stupid. He didn't realize half of the significance of the information he'd just revealed. Which was why he was now going to contact the Emperor and inform his majesty personally of what _else_ they'd found.

The sudden cessation of streaming data from the numerous probes inside the wormhole could be passed off as interference from local special phenomena, but the more likely answer, considering the efficiency by which all of their drones stopped responding, was from external, _sentient_ factors.

In other words, there was something in there, and the Emperor would be pleased to send his servant Darth Vader to investigate it. It likely would be Vader. The Emperor wouldn't bother with it himself unless there was a pacified region of space for him to safely visit, or unless the race inside was of the allying kind. Whoever they were, they were about to get a handful of the Empire right in their faces.

The Emperor, throne and all appeared in front of him on the holo-pad. Lik kneeled respectfully.

"Your majesty, I have promising news that I think you'll enjoy..."

It was difficult to keep the smile off his face.

* * *

Hinata watched as the ship left the hanger, its golden hull reflecting the spotlights from the ceiling across the numerous hulls and walls inside. She stood behind a large metal pane of durable see-through metal that gave her a spectacular view of the inside of the station's hanger. There were few ships left inside it, and its great expanse seemed all the more empty because of it.

Normally it would have contained all the different types of war machines that were a part of the Akatsuki Coalition, their working title during the Clone Wars. But now, all that was left were a few rusted ships and old, unusable equipment. Even so, her ship sat nearby, quietly idling, as if waiting for her to command it again.

Sadly, and it really _did_ sadden her, she couldn't. Even though it was as familiar and precious to her as anything, she had her priorities, this biggest of which was the second life within her. She wasn't just worrying about her own life now. She may be cloned if she died, but not the small one inside her bulging belly. She felt a small tremble run through her skin and she smiled softly, rubbing a hand tenderly across the lowest part of her shirt.

'_Hmhm, you're eager to get out aren't you?'_ she silently asked her unborn child. As if in response, it kicked again. She chuckled softly, caressing her stomach absently.

"Hinata."

She turned at the voice. Naruto stood there in his pre-flight suit, smiling at her as he watched. "C'mon, Nagato's gonna take us to a new HQ. Since those Empire freaks know we're here, it's not safe for you."

Hinata nodded at him and walked over, leaning against him lightly. "He's been kicking again," she mumbled happily.

Naruto raised an eyebrow and placed his own hand over her bulge. Instantly, in recognition of his touch, there was a small vibration, and he smiled. "No kidding! But what makes you so sure it's a boy?"

Hinata laughed. "Well we can't keep calling it 'it.' Besides, you know how motherly intuition works."

Naruto gave her a strange look. "Yeeeeahhh… not really." They both laughed together as he placed a hand behind her and led her to a nearby lift that would take them several levels higher where his ship waited.

When the massive blast doors opened, there, in all its golden glory floated the nearly four hundred meter long vessel that would carry them to their destination. It was Naruto's personal ship, an expensive, and powerful Tech III Strategic Cruiser of Amarrian design dubbed the _Legion_. Naruto however gave it the unique name of _Source Of._

When Hinata had first asked him what it meant he said he'd find out later. When she'd asked again after many years, he'd said it was because it was the source of many things in his and others' lives. Pain for his enemies, protection for his allies, and comfort for his family.

It was romantic in a way, she realized, that he thought of it as a sort of home. This particular ship, while once used for combat, was now specifically reconfigured for absolute defense and escape. Outside, it might look like a warship, but on the inside, they still had rugs and furniture strewn about the place. Old magazines collected dust on nearby coffee stands, and the TVs around the ship were still tuned to theirs and their children's favorite channels.

They'd raised many of their kids on the ship, and she realized it would have its use again. Their eighth child would have need of such a comfortable home to grow in.

They stepped up to a moving platform as it came down to them from the side of the ship. Stepping on it she noticed that another lift beside them had numerous bags of… something, being loaded onto it, where she assumed it would ferry them to the ship. She realized it must have been their personal belongings from their recently abandoned quarters in this station.

She felt her body lurch as the platform she was standing on began to move upward. She watched as the ship loomed into view growing larger and larger as it eclipsed her vision. At last they arrived at a small access port on the side of the hull that was open. The driver of the platform skillfully latched it to the docking mechanism on the ship and Naruto carefully guided her into the ship.

Once inside, she felt a wave of nostalgia wash over her. It had been years since she'd been onboard the ship, discounting the two decades she'd been frozen in place in the mass freezing grounds in the bowels of the facility.

She looked around. Nothing had changed since she'd last set foot inside. She smiled. Naruto was like that. He knew it was more _her_ preference that nothing be changed than anything else, but she also knew that Naruto hated change as well.

He'd seen his children grow up seven times, and each time he'd taught them to live in the world and culture of New Eden. Each time, he'd cried with a smile on his face when they'd gotten their capsuleer operation, during which their bodies were augmented with the special hookups that allowed them to link up with their ship.

It was their family's celebration of their coming of age. It was a happy and momentous occasion, but it was also sad. Well, for her and Naruto at least. They both knew the day would come when the children would have to take off for their own futures, but it always hit them hard every time.

Naruto, knowing such a time would come, made sure that their family would always be that; a family. For decades after, when the older children had gone out to experience and taste for themselves the galaxy of New Eden, Naruto had scheduled a monthly family meet-up. The Amarr Empire had always been a home to them all, ever since their cultures fateful meeting so many thousands of years ago.

Within its borders, on the soil of their home world, they would spend a week vacationing in the secluded beaches of the Land of Waves, and touring the numerous "Hidden Villages," with Naruto and Hinata, and the eldest children describing to the younger ones the way the cities were before they evolved into great capitals for their nations.

And they always kept in touch. All seven of their children were required to. In the vast universe they lived in, Naruto stressed communication as key to a family's success.

She smiled softly as Naruto gave her a kiss on her forehead before he went off to link with the ship. She watched him go until he rounded a corner and was out of sight. Once he was gone, she made her way to what _would_ be the bridge of the vessel, if it hadn't been commanded by a single individual in a pod. Sure the ship had a crew, but with Naruto in control, they were more of a living damage-control force.

Once on the "bridge," she immediate smiled at the sight. The whole place had been converted into a living room with the large bow windows giving a spectacular view of the space ahead of them. There was a couch or two cockeyed next to each other with a large rug in front of it. A large screen was affixed to the walls to both her left and right. With so many kids, they'd needed them for _child_ damage-control.

As soon as the door to the room slid shut behind her, Naruto's image appeared on the screen to her left. Well, the image he wanted her to see. Naturally he couldn't display himself while he was suspended in amniotic fluid, so instead, all capsuleers had a digital image that moved and acted with 100% realism. Commanded by Naruto's now linked mind, the image looked at her gently. She'd marveled the first time she'd seen them. It even mimicked Naruto's wide smile perfectly.

"_Ready Hina-hime?"_ the image asked. She smiled back and nodded, settling down on the nearest couch and stared out the window as the walls of station's hanger shifted, the _Source Of_ lifted off, the docking clamps releasing quietly, allowing the ship to slowly drift to the side, turning slowly as it faced the now gaping maw of the hanger's exit.

The ship slid through, unaffected by the polarized shield, and before Hinata's eyes, the expanse of space opened up to her. Stars wheeled around as the Naruto oriented the ship away from the station.

"_Ok Hina-hime, now we just have to wait for our escorts to join us and we'll be on our way."_

She gave a nod to the image. Looking to her left, she saw a small plug next to the arm pad of the couch. Reaching over, she plucked it out of its holder and pulled, the long cord attached to it following. She deftly flicked her long indigo hair to the side and used her left hand to finger the back of her neck carefully.

'_One… two… three.'_ She ran her fingers down from the back of her head to the base of her neck, tracing the sockets that allowed her to link with capsuleer ships. Carefully, she inserted the cable into the opening and smiled as the familiar rush of capsuleer-sight entered her vision.

Naruto had "borrowed" the idea from an allied capsuleer during the Clone Wars. Essentially it allowed her to link with the ship, but only as an observer. She could see what Naruto saw, feel what he felt, and know what he knew. She could now see through his "eyes."

What she saw made another wave of nostalgia wash over her. The camera drones that were systematically affixed to the ship allowed a capsuleer to zoom in and out around his ship, allowing him or her to view breaches or external factors that otherwise would be invisible. Just because they, for all intents and purposes, _were_ the ship, I didn't mean they knew everything that was going on inside. Just like how a biological body couldn't control or communicate with its red or white blood cells, the capsuleer couldn't detect every rusty bolt that was screwed into their hull.

The drones, while small, were warp-capable and could be sent away to view another nearby ship easily, and because of their size and miniscule power emissions, they were virtually undetectable.

She watched as Naruto rotated his camera drones around the golden plated ship, the old insignia of the Akatsuki Coalition branded onto the stubby side wings.

She narrowed her "eyes" as she saw a quartet of ships launch from the hanger behind them. To her surprise, they were all powerful command ships, advanced battle cruisers capable of both offensive domination and total defensive supremacy. A Damnation, an Absolution (two different versions based off of the same hull of the Amarrian Prophesy-class battle cruiser), and an Astarte and a Sleipnir of Gallente and Minmatar designs respectively.

All quite powerful, and grossly wasted on a simple escort mission. But no doubt Nagato had decided to spare no expense in protecting her unborn child. _'That's right… this is all to protect you, little one.'_

She placed a hand back over her belly and literally felt the baby within her grow excited. _'Yup, definitely a boy. A girl would have been shy about it.'_

She, as always when thinking of her family, smiled again, before closing her eyes and seeing the images from the drones trickle through her mind. The chatter between the pilots of the other ships and Naruto acted as background noise as her mortal eyes closed, and she relaxed, allowing the feeling of spacial suspension lull her to sleep. She trusted Naruto more than anyone, and the odds of a conflict occurring in transit were low.

She could safely rest in the meanwhile.

* * *

"_Fleet seven, make your way to Akonoinen. Fleet eight, same thing."_

"_Vertigo Corp, your designated system is Vuorrassi, make your way there and form up with GST."_

"_Ballistix fleets incoming. Requesting staging location."_

"_Roger that Ballistix, head for Oimmo and set up shop."_

"_We've got freighters heading this way from Jita. Where do we put them?"_

"_Put them in Hageken. We're running out of places here."_

"_Fleet congestion reported in Vuorassi, Akonoinen, Hageken, Oimmo, Vellaine, Autaris, Uosusuok and Isikemi. Requesting more traffic directors immediately."_

"_Affirmative Hageken Control, your request has been announced. Alliance directors will be along shortly."_

"_Thank you kindly."_

"_This is Gamble, Nightmare Realm fleets are waiting outside Jan and Nalvula. No pirates'll be getting through any time soon."_

"_Roger that Gamble. What's the situation of the Otsasai gate?"_

"_One second… No eyes on gate, sorry Control."_

"_Ten-four, will redirect."_

Organized chaos would be the word that best described the situation. But the veterans were all over it. No pilot had even seen so much activity in years. Nearly all systems in the Koichi, Mito, and Kaala constellations we're full of alliance forces as they mobilized like a well-oiled machine.

The call was galaxy wide. Black Lister smirked as he changed the channel news.

"-making a mass transit from zero-security space to an undiscl-"

Flip.

"-numerous alliances losing dozens of elite fleet commanders-"

Flip.

"-corporations all across New Eden are hurting for experienced capsuleer pilots due to the abrupt mass exodus of old mem-"

Flip.

"-sudden influx of traffic in the entire Lonetrek region. Reports indicate it's now a large staging point for the recently reclusive Akatsuki Alliance, who just left null-sec last week. We also understand there is a strong military presence from the alliance in the nearby low-security systems. If you have shipments that take your through the area, you'd do best to postpone your plans."

Black lowered the remote, finding SCOPE news to be the most accurate source of information.

"Unless you have some good friends on the inside who'll let your through," said the second anchorman. Or rather, anchor_woman_; it was a general rule of thumb to have one guy and one girl doing the news. No idea where it came from, but that was how it was.

"Rumor has it that the recent constriction of ranks in various capsuleer corporations across New Eden has to do with the Akatsuki relocating to _high-sec_ of all places. Our sources indicate that many of the leaving members have strong ties with the alliance or are former members themselves."

"We'll keep reporting on this as it happens, but in the meantime, news from the Amarrian side of things! Empress Jamyl Sarum made a public announcement today regarding the recent relocation of millions of tons of war materials as a 'preparation for things to come.' She didn't comment too deeply on the mater but left the impression that something big was going to happen, soon."

The scene changed to a recording of the announcement, with the date in the corner of the screen indicating it was taken only a few hours previous.

"Captain! You here?" Black turned his head to see Kora with her bags packed and ready to go as she left her room.

"Yeah I'm still here," he called back.

She dropped her bags tiredly and looked at him. She eyed in curiously. "Aren't you going to pack your stuff?"

He smirked at her. "Why? You already packed my stuff, didn't you?"

She scowled at him comically. "I wonder what would happen if I didn't…"

"I dread to think of it."

She rolled her eyes at his dry remark. "Yeah well you'll have to get off your butt anyway regardless."

He eyed her inquisitively. "And this is because…?"

She picked up her bags again and began carrying them out of the room to the platform outside that would ferry them to the ship in the station's hanger. "A call came in from the Alliance. They want you to help with keeping all the first-timers in control. They have no idea what they're getting into and need to be contained. They _think_ we're here to fight off the incursions, but that's just a cover."

Black sighed, but nodded. "Someone's bound to wonder why we took down our towers just to do some incursions… Nobody's that stupid." He stood up and stretched his back. He followed Kora out to the ship, unwillingly helping her to carry out their luggage.

Once on board, he left her to storing their things as he went to the pod chamber. Quickly linking with the ship, he grinned as he felt the instant burst of flowing information as it trickled through his brain.

A dozen new information channels had been opened, each one regarding a specific element of the big move.

Intelligence, shipping manifests, relocation orders, and scout reports to name a few. One of them was a highly secure command channel. In it was only fifty or so individuals, each one affiliated with one of the corporations that comprised the Akatsuki Alliance.

Very few common members were allowed into the channel, but Black Lister wasn't an ordinary member. True, in the beginning, he'd been an over-privileged nobody who had no idea the scope of what he was hearing. But after years of climbing the ranking ladder, he'd become a lazy, but intelligent and valuable asset. Mainly though, it was his ability as a _recruiter_ that made him so valuable.

He had a silver tongue that he used to great effect with every person he'd met.

Keying into the channel, he found himself in the middle of a small meeting.

"Once everyone's ready, we'll begin transit into through the wormhole."

"The containment field will have to be reinforced though. The wormhole's been off limits for years, so they're bound to be under strain when we start shifting shit through."

"Go ahead and get that set up then, sooner's better than later."

"Oh Lister, great of you to show up." Dresdin said, finally acknowledging his presence. "I assume you got my message?"

"That's why I popped in here. If I'm gonna keep the rookies in check, I'm gonna need them all to be moved to a new channel. As long as they're all there, I'll be able to handle them."

"'K then, I'll get one sorted out for you."

Little did he know the hell he was getting himself into; he'd forgotten how clueless rookies could be, or rather, he'd forgotten how clueless _he_ used to be.

* * *

"Ah, so the Emperor's sent another pawn to kill me. As much as I appreciate the effort, next time, he really should send a full fleet." The figure said as he looked down upon the intruding individual. The first one's whole body was cloaked, and his head was hooded. The second, encroaching one, was clearly a human woman. She wore a basic Imperial flight suit that seemed to incorporate several pockets more than normal. From one of those pockets she'd retrieved a small cylindrical object that turned out to be a lightsaber.

She said nothing as she looked up at him. She'd been ordered by the Emperor to kill the man, and she was determined to do so. Holding her saber tightly, she readied herself for the inevitable fight.

However, he seemed almost surprised at her. "What are you doing?" he asked almost innocently.

"Simple, I'm going to kill you." She didn't seem like to play around.

"No no," he said in response, "I know that. I'm asking why you're facing me."

She blinked in surprise. What did he expect her to do, turn around and fight backwards?

When she didn't answer he laughed lightly. "Oh, I see. You think you're going to fight me directly. Sorry, but that's not how I do things."

She narrowed her eyes at him and prepared to launch herself at him. It was only when she felt to warm, moist breath of someone's breath on her neck that she whirled, swinging her saber at it.

When she'd fully turned, she found her eyes wide as the sky. It was a human male, wearing a black jacket with a white shirt beneath. He had black pants with white stripes going down the sides, tucked neatly into his black boots. But what really caught her attention was the Imperial logo stamped into his shoulders.

The next thing she noticed was his yellow eyes and crimson lightsaber, alight and in his hand.

Too stunned to realize what she was doing she swung at him again, only to realize her sword-hand was only a stump, the end cleanly cauterized and still smoking from its amputation. The next thing she noticed was the saber he was holding was buried in her gut.

With a flourish, the Imperial withdrew his blade and removed her head in one clean swipe. Her body fell quietly to the ground.

The figure smirked and shook his head. _'When will they learn?'_ He stepped down to the dark forest floor and sighed. "Oh well, just another soldier for me."

He ignored the body for a moment and looked to the darkened sky. The only light was provided by the heavens themselves; the stars and the large orange image of Yavin IV's primary.

He looked at the twinkling images and felt a strange sensation hit him. A longing… a desire… a nostalgic yearning.

"It about time I join them, I think," he said aloud to no one in particular. The light of night illuminated only slightly the pale white scale-like skin of his face and reflected dimly against his circular glasses.

Kabuto stared into the sky for several more seconds before turning and heading off back to the hidden

"Hmh, I wonder how long it's been…" His face broke into a smile as he watched the distant nova's twinkle. "…since I last saw you, Naruto."

* * *

The vessel slipped quietly through the controlled chaos that was Coruscant's skyline. It was a plain looking vehicle, with drab grey plating and dark, one-way viewports at the cockpit. The only individuality it had was the tri-winged design unique to the Sienar Fleet Systems _Lambda_-class shuttle and the opaque insignia of the Galactic Empire.

Though it was illegal to operate vehicles separate to the skylanes, bearing the crest of the military did allow for some freedom. Because of this, the shuttle wasted little time in flying directly to its destination. Its destination? The Imperial Palace. Because of the eavy presence of Imperial troops and fleets, it wasn't an uncommon sight to see a Lambda cruising through the crowded sky; no gave it a second look.

However, if they had, they might have spotted the trio of official Imperial Security skyhoppers trailing it, making sure it reached its destination unharmed. Soon, their job would be done, as the Imperial Palace loomed in front of them. Its target in sight, it veered away its escorts, now completely safe in the shadow of the structures extensive anti-air defences.

As it approached the landing pad it was directed to, the two lowest wings folded up, the landing gear extending. It quietly set down, hissing as the landing ramp lowered. Two columns of storm troopers lined either side of the walkway, at attention. The soft sounds of booted steps was the only other sound to be heard.

Finally, a lone figure appeared. He was a human, roughly six foot tall, rough looking, but aware and confident. He looked both ways at either line of soldiers before descending the ramp fully. Unlike the normal officers of the Imperial Command, he didn't wear black. Instead, he wore a white dress shirt, matching pants, and black synthetic leather boots. About his waist was a simple black belt with silver buckle, and one his shoulders were

The first thing one would notice about him was that he was at least decently handsome, but with no great defining features. Those who knew him better, however, would add to that; to them, he was known for his almost ever-present playful smile, and his abnormally sharp amber eyes. In fact, some believed they were actually a golden-yellow, and that he used contacts, or some-such other tool to hide them. Make them look normal. He never supported, nor denied such claims. He would simply smile, chuckle perhaps, and brush the subject aside.

But there were few who would even dare, not that he cared. Even in the halls of the Emperor's home on Coruscant, he was as unknown as the extra-galactic plain. The only person he could claim to know him best was the Emperor, and himself. His boots echoed through the sparsely populated walkways that he plodded through, as if he'd created them. He spared no passing glances, eyed no particularly attractive woman, acknowledged no ranked officer who saluted him. But he didn't do so with stoic ignorance like some of his colleagues might. No, it wasn't ignorance, but more-so… _indifference._ He saw them, knew they were there, but he just couldn't be bothered to let them know he did.

When he stepped into the empty turbolift, he keyed the correct floor and folded his hands behind his back idly.

To those who knew him, he was Grand Admiral Xelos. But that was irrelevant.

Who he was didn't matter. All that mattered was the mission, the duty, and the action of seeing it done. What happened before or in-between was unimportant. As long as the job was done with sufficiency, everything else simply fell into the oblivion of "his life." When it was done, he could reflect on what had happened, but not a moment earlier. Others might criticize this, but it had apparently been enough to attract the eye of the Emperor; enough to gain him the rank he now bore so indifferently. Even though he was only promoted as the most recent of the twelve few Grand Admirals, he care too much for his new authority or fame. He treated all as equals until they proved otherwise, even those who were supposed to be higher rank than him. This had gotten him more than one distasteful impression from the higher-ups before and during his ascension.

In the end, it was thanks to that trait that he'd caught the Emperor's eye. So many complaints about a certain Imperial captain… Not that his superiors-at-the-time could take any action against him. Despite his attitude, his tactical and strategic decisions could not be refuted. The straw the broke his seniors' backs was when he blatantly ignored High Command in favor of a more indirect, but (what would later be deemed a) far more effective result. The action had caused a brief standoff between his smaller taskforce and the considerably more powerful fleet of Admiral Dulan. Even during the confrontation, reports indicated that he put the looming threat of arrest and/or death on the backburner, favoring to finish his duty and "play a game of rules" with the Admiral later.

It was one of the more distracting moments of his career. _'If Dulan, had focused on the mission rather than trying to threaten me, we would have lost fewer men.'_ Such were his official thoughts on the matter, since they _were_ on record. He'd said them straight to the Emperor's face, in fact. Come what may, he simply couldn't be bothered to play by the rules of others, especially when those rules hindered him in his task.

This had caused quite the commotion amongst the Imperial elite. Even more so when he'd left the meeting with the head of the faction, not only acquitted of all transgressions, but _promoted_. Though they could look at the official records all they wanted, they simply couldn't understand how his words had garnered the _approval _of the Emperor. There were few who knew the truth; that the official report was altered. _Un_officially, the Emperor had deciphered that his alias, K'Balc Hiwet Ustez, wasn't his real name.

It was true; it was a name he'd come up on his application to the Imperial Academy on Carida. That now brought to light, the grilling the powerful old man had given him had ended with the simple truth, a new rank, and a new name; Non-human, Grand Admiral, Zarin Xelos.

Not that anyone else knew it. Though he was non-human, he was a rare breed of changelings; looking human was trivial. It had been years since he'd revealed his true form to anyone, though he assumed the Emperor was able to see at least a glimpse of it, thanks to his powerful Force abilities. But that was mere speculation, even if plausibly accurate.

But it was because of all of this that he now walked the hall that lead to the wizened old man's throne room. When he approached, the doors opened without request, and he walked in, knowing the Emperor was expecting him. As soon as he was through, the massive metal doors closed behind him, leaving him, a few Imperial guards, no doubt a few more unseen than seen, and the man in the chair. At his side, an aide was speaking with him, until the doors closed with a slam. Immediately the aide backed away from the hooded figure, who seemed to instantly forget she was there.

Xelos walked forward, stopping only a few short meters from the throne that sat atop a small series of stairs. "You called?" he asked, devoid of any sense of inferiority. The voice that came from the figure was aged and rattling.

"Yes…" he began with deliberate slowness. "I have an interesting piece of information for you, and a task, should you choose to accept it." He said each word slowly, and with purpose, his cold, dead yellow eyes (colored from years of dark-Force manipulation) scrutinizing every muscle twitch on the alien's face.

He was interested. "…Such as?"

He couldn't be sure, but he could have sworn the creature-of-a-man before him _actually_ cracked a small, slight smile.

Pain watched at the golden ship slipped away into the void, its escorts following tightly beside it. From the window of his now empty office aboard the station, he had a beautiful view of the surrounding nebula, and the blinking stars behind its shrouded veil. He stared off into it blankly, his thoughts veering introspectively. It was a moment of silence, and only just; his head turned slightly at the sound of heavy booted feet behind him.

"Report."

The masked trooper stood idly behind, an assault rifle slung across his back, pistol in its holder, and visor-less helmet devoid of all expression. "Pack-up's finished. All valuable materials have been offloaded to the freighters. Personnel just completed boarding their transports as well. We're ready to move."

"And the technology?" Pain asked, knowing the soldier knew what he was taking about.

"Packed up or destroyed beyond recognition. There's nothing of value left."

He nodded. "Good. Get to your transport and begin final evacuation protocols. I don't want anyone left behind because of stupidity."

The soldier nodded, turned and left. Pain returned his vision to the wispy space-clouds beyond, feeling that old nostalgia threaten to overtake him. He smirked, welcoming the more pleasant part of it and shunning the rest. "So, the cycle begins again."

He gave one last look to the stars and turned away, his cloak fluttering in his own wake. A new base of operations had to be established. Or rather, _retaken._

That world?

Shinobi Prime.

* * *

**A/N: And there it is! I know, it's short, but you can't imagine the writers bkock this chapter gave me, resulting in it being at partial fault for it coming out so late. Now that its, done though, more ideas will come much easier! That said, I'll bid you all _adieu!_**

**Don't forget to review! :D Reviews are the lifeblood of any story!**

**'Till next time! o/**


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